76% of addicts in drug rehab run by Hong Kong NGO are readmissions: auditor
Audit Commission calls for publicly funded NGO to make ‘service improvements’ but organisation says relapses common in recovery process
More than three-quarters of people receiving drug rehabilitation services from a government-funded NGO over the past five years were readmitted patients, according to Hong Kong’s Audit Commission, but the group has said relapses among recovering addicts are common in the treatment process.
In a report released on Wednesday, the auditor urged the Society for the Aid and Rehabilitation of Drug Abusers, an NGO that provides voluntary residential drug rehabilitation services, to review its programmes in light of the high readmission rate.
“While noting that such a high proportion of readmission might be largely attributable to the chronic relapsing conditions in different drug abuse scenarios, [the auditor] considers that there is scope for service improvements,” the commission said.
Analysing admission numbers to the NGO’s four drug treatment and rehabilitation centres from 2019 to 2024, the auditor found that 76 per cent out of the 3,513 admitted cases were drug abusers returning to the programme after their first discharge.
The commission also said that among those readmitted in 2023-24, they were back on the programme on average four times over the five-year period from 2019 to 2024. The highest number of admissions for a single patient stood at 17.
Most patients treated by the NGO, which is funded by the Department of Health and the Social Welfare Department, were admitted to Shek Kwu Chau Treatment and Rehabilitation Centre, located on Shek Kwu Chau to the south of Lantau.