Police could force high-risk mental patients to comply with treatment programmes under a proposal being considered after a fatal attack by a schizophrenic patient.
It is one of a number of recommendations that may be made by a Hospital Authority committee which is reviewing the management of mental patients after the attack in Kwai Chung, in which the patient chopped two people to death.
Under a proposed community treatment order (CTO), police and doctors would be empowered to impose involuntary treatment on patients in the community.
In an extreme case, police would be able to break into premises to take a patient to hospital if such an order was breached.
In May, a 42-year-old man, who lived alone on the Kwai Shing East public housing estate, chopped two people to death and injured three others at the Kwai Chung estate. He has been charged with murder and wounding. The man was classified as 'high-risk' and had received regular treatment at Kwai Chung Hospital, a centre for psychiatric care, since it discharged him in 2004. However, he repeatedly refused visits from a community nurse.
Hong Kong has been promoting community care for the mentally ill, but how these patients - especially some of the 40,000 schizophrenics - can be adequately supported, and neighbourhoods protected, has been a pressing social issue.