'Unacceptable' to let patient go with 14 months' psychoactive meds

Staff reporter

It is unacceptable for a patient to be given psychoactive medications for 14 months after being discharged from Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital, said Hospital Authority chairman Henry Fan Hung-ling.

The incident came to light when geriatric specialist Paul Shea Tat-ming reported on social media that an 83-year-old male patient was prescribed 425 days worth - or 14 months - of psychoactive medication after a 9-day hospital stay last April. Shea described this as "record-breaking."

The 83-year-old patient has been seeing private doctors for the past five years and suffers from dementia, depression, anxiety, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

He has been taking various medications for his chronic illnesses and psychiatric conditions.

When the patient was discharged, he was prescribed a large amount of medication, requiring two duffel bags to carry them.

He was then transferred to a public psychiatric clinic for a follow-up consultation 14 months later.

Shea found the case unreasonable, noting that one of the medications, Clonazepam, is a dangerous drug requiring close doctor monitoring.

"Even if the hospital prescribes a huge amount of medication in one go, it doesn't mean the patient need not consult doctors again for a long period," he said.

Fan said that both himself and Eastern Hospital management considered the case "unacceptable" and that the authority would conduct a comprehensive review.

However, he said finding individual accountability was not the only solution, and said more guidelines should be provided to doctors.

The authority will also review whether outpatient clinics should avoid prescribing medications for 16 weeks at a time, and will also examine the handling of chronic disease patients every six months.

Also, the authority plans to expand the scope of international recruitment to Singapore and Malaysia in the second half of this year, as well as facilitate exchanges with mainland hospitals, to address staffing challenges.

Some 20 doctors from the Greater Bay Area will visit Hong Kong this year under the Greater Bay Area Healthcare Talents Visiting program.

Fan added that the authority had signed a memorandum of understanding with The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University - located in Guangzhou - that the hospital will send at least 10 specialists to exchange experience in Hong Kong in the fourth quarter of this year.

Meanwhile, Fan said the turnover rate of public hospital doctors remained at 5.4 percent as of late April, with 6,780 full-time doctors. For nurses, the turnover rate was 8.2 percent and there are more than 28,500 full-time nurses.