Hong Kong should consider more sharing of psychiatric patient data: expert

Hong Kong authorities should allow for greater sharing of psychiatric patients’ information among professionals assisting them to better address their needs and reduce the risks of tragic incidents, a top government adviser has proposed.

Dr Lam Ching-choi, chairman of Hong Kong’s advisory committee on mental health, suggested the change after noting a case of a police officer fatally shooting a knife-wielding schizophrenic patient who had attacked his wife and mother in September.

“The committee has started a discussion on how to let different service providers know the latest condition of the patients and provide support promptly,” he said.

“If the healthcare and welfare systems can work more effectively together, can we prevent tragedies like this? I can’t say this is exactly the case, but if the information flow can be improved, we can help more patients for sure.”

One option was to grant social workers access to patients’ healthcare information so they could check up on anyone who had missed a medical appointment, he said.

He noted that such information could not currently be shared under privacy protocols, except under a special arrangement where doctors and social workers regularly updated each other on flagged patient cases.

Lam argued the arrangement was insufficient because it was not conducted in real-time and still relied heavily on direct interaction between parties.