Shocking murders leave sickening dread

It is sickening for anyone - let alone self-proclaimed celebrity Joseph Lam Chok - to take advantage of the brutal murders of two women in Plaza Hollywood to promote themselves on social media.

His act of posturing like the killer was sickening - and lawmaker Doreen Kong Yuk-foon was right to question if our city has, indeed, fallen sick.

It is reported that the killer has a history of mental illness known as schizophrenia, a serious disorder that often involves symptoms including hallucination, delusion and confusion.

Those suffering from this condition are expected to take medicine regularly.

Friday's horrific incident reminded me of the Anne Anne Kindergarten mass stabbing in 1982.

A man suffering from a similar disorder killed his mother and sister before storming into the Sham Shui Po kindergarten to stab more than 30 children and several staff members. Four kindergarten pupils died.

Following the killings, kindergarten security across the city was tightened and additional resources allocated to upgrade mental health care.

Nonetheless, I hesitate to echo Kong's view that we are seeing the tip of the iceberg as it is rare for patients suffering from mental conditions to get so violent even though there have been cases from time to time.

In cases involving serious violence, the court would usually order the patients to be remanded in a psychiatric hospital for a long time.

Some might never be released back into society. The attacker in the Anne Anne Kindergarten mass stabbing remains in a psychiatric hospital.

That being said, it would be too late by the time the court stepped in to put a serious offender into a psychiatric hospital. By that time, a tragic incident could have already happened, with someone getting killed or injured.

There should be greater efforts made to prevent such a tragic incident from happening in the first place - that would be much fairer not only to the public but also to the patients.

It is alarming to hear government advisor Terry Lam Yat-sang of the University of Hong Kong saying there are only about 1,000 psychiatrists and clinical psychologists in our city of seven million people. Given the appalling manpower shortage, there is no way to deal with the situation unless health authorities can think out of the box to cope with the outcome of the severe shortfall.

A creative triage system to refer patients suffering from mild mental conditions to general doctors may not be ideal, but it could be a practical step.

Rather than putting them on the long waiting list with no proper attention given during the period, it would be better to place them in some kind of safety net where their condition is monitored and treated.

When the need arises, they can be urgently referred to a specialist.

The mental patient who killed the two women in the Diamond Hill shopping mall was known to the authorities and had reportedly booked to see a doctor soon.

If an efficient mechanism had been established, would this man's condition have deteriorated at a slower pace or the dangerous signs spotted in time?