KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 15 — The Ministry of Health (MOH) is reviewing the standard operating procedures (SOP) for bringing psychiatric patients for treatment to health facilities.
Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said this matter is important as it involves the safety of other patients who are on the same premises.
Among the SOPs to be streamlined are the process of bringing psychiatric patients for treatment, while these patients wait for treatment to be given.
“What we notice is that psychiatric patients become agitated in public places, and can react by doing anything.
“So we need to see which process or SOP needs to be streamlined, so when these patients come in for treatment we will know where to place them during the whole process,” he told a press conference after attending the Global Surgery Initiative Programme at the Subang Jaya Medical Centre today.
Dr Noor Hisham said this when asked to elaborate on the incident involving a psychiatric patient, being escorted by police to receive treatment, who stabbed a member of the public in an incident at the Selayang Hospital yesterday.
He added this kind of incident could happen anywhere and that the public perception that the psychiatric patient in question was acting out of control due to overcrowding in the hospital’s Emergency Department was not the main reason.
— Bernama
