‘Unacceptable’: Hong Kong hospital gives patient 425 days of psychiatric medication
- Hospital Authority head Henry Fan vows review of prescription mechanism after 83-year-old man given more than year’s worth of medication
The head of Hong Kong’s public hospitals has called it “unacceptable” for a patient to have been given more than 400 days of medication at once, pledging a thorough review of the drug prescription mechanism.
Hospital Authority chairman Henry Fan Hung-ling criticised the move on Thursday, two days after a private geriatrician said on social media his 83-year-old patient was prescribed 425 days of drugs, which were mainly for psychiatric conditions, by Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital in April after he was treated for a fever for nine days.
“Prescription of drugs for patients with chronic illness is always at the discretion of doctors, but what happened this time was unacceptable. How could you prescribe 400 days of psychiatric medications in one go?” Fan said.
“The situation was not ideal. We will conduct a thorough review, on top of an ongoing one to look into the possibility of prescribing fewer drugs to patients at clinics, and whether [even] giving 16 weeks of drugs would be too much.”
The authority has already launched a drug refill services programme that allows certain patients who have medical consultation intervals of 16 weeks or longer to collect their drugs in phases to reduce the risk of misuse and having to store excess medication at home.
Fan said the authority would need time to carry out its review, as it hoped to provide patients with a location other than hospitals where they could fill their prescriptions, he added.