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KUALA LUMPUR – The Health Ministry is reviewing the standard operating procedures (SOPs) for bringing psychiatric patients for treatment at health facilities, an important matter as it involves the safety of other patients, said Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.
He said among the SOPs to be streamlined are the processes of bringing psychiatric patients to health facilities and for while they await treatment.
“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 Subang Jaya Medical Centre today.
Dr Noor Hisham said this when asked to elaborate on an incident involving a psychiatric patient, being escorted by police to receive treatment, who stabbed a member of the public in an incident at Selayang Hospital yesterday.
He added that such and 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, February 15, 2023