A review of the mental health-care system is urgently needed to stop discrimination against patients, the Equal Opportunities Commission said.
The use of outdated drugs, the lack of an accurate estimate of the number of patients in need of care and a poor complaints mechanism were problem areas, it said.
It heard the complaints in meetings with doctors and with patients and their families.
Only 90,000 mental patients have been identified in a government census, but doctors estimate there could be up to 1.2 million people in need of various types of mental health care.
The number of first-time psychiatric patients visited out-patient clinics jumped from 12,323 in 1995-96 to 18,023 in 1998-99.
Commission chairwoman Anna Wu Hung-yuk said: 'Some patients are afraid they will get unnecessary treatment or perhaps no treatment if they complain. We need to look at the system to see if services are adequate.' According to medicine supplier Anthony Chan, divisional manager of Janssen Pharmaceutica, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, drugs popular in the 1970s were still frequently used by government doctors.
