The Hospital Authority may set up a database of psychiatric patients, the health minister says.
York Chow Yat-ngok was asked by lawmakers to produce figures on the number of psychiatric patients who had killed themselves or inflicted harm on others, including murder and manslaughter, within one year of being discharged from hospital. Dr Chow said the authority did not collect such data. He said it 'is currently exploring the establishment of a database to collect data in this respect'.
The call for such information comes after two tragic cases. A woman suspected to be mentally ill killed her mother this month, and in October a mentally ill woman committed suicide after killing her two children.
Wong Sing-chi of the Democratic Party said he was 'very worried' that the government was not paying enough attention to high-risk psychiatric patients who were discharged without comprehensive assessment.
Dr Chow said that before psychiatric patients were discharged, they underwent a risk assessment on their recovery progress, propensity to violence, suicidal tendencies, availability of family support and compliance in taking drugs and attending follow-up treatment. But he admitted that some patients might not show violent tendencies in hospital, while the condition of others might deteriorate drastically after being discharged.
He said the number of psychiatric inpatients dropped from about 14,700 in 2004 to 13,900 this year, while the total number of psychiatric patients rose from about 125,000 to more than 154,000. He said the increase was because more patients had become willing to be treated.