Indian Express: New Delhi: Thursday, April 17, 2014.
In the last five years, over 400 patients “disappeared” or
went missing from the Delhi government’s Institute of Human Behaviour and
Allied Sciences (IHBAS) in East Delhi, data provided by the hospital in
response to an RTI shows.
According to the data, 420 patients had “disappeared”
since 2009 the highest number of “disappearances” was 121 patients in 2010 and the least, last year at 60
patients.
In the same
period, 18 lakh patients were treated at the hospital.
IHBAS
director Dr Nimesh Desai said these figures were “misleading”. “For the last 10
years, we have distinguished between the concept of ‘escaped’ and ‘absconding’
patients on the advise of our board of advisors, a body of experts mandated by
the Mental Health Act of 197. For patients sent to us from Tihar Jail or by
magisterial orders, we use the term ‘escaped’ if they leave during treatment
since we are accountable to the authorities concerned and we follow all due
legal processes for this category.”
However, for
the last five years, the data of “escaped” patients from this category is less
than 0.1 per cent one patient in 2010 and three in 2013, for example.
Dr Desai said
bulk of the patients included in the RTI reply were walk-in, regular patients,
who were, therefore, “absconding” rather than having “escaped”.
“Our hospital
wards are treated like any other hospital, so if some patient simply walks out
without informing his or her guardians or hospital authorities, he or she can
do so and that is a basic human right of patients. It happens in all hospitals
across specialties and we don’t believe IHBAS should be treated any
differently,” Dr Desai said.
The data in
this category (included in the RTI reply), he said, was still less than 2.5 per
cent of hospital admissions in the last five years “at par with any regular
hospital of any specialty”.
The third
category which is patients who Leave Against Medical Advice (LAMA) (which has
not been included in the RTI reply) are those patients, who “give their signed
consent stating they do not want to follow the treatment”, and leave the
hospital after informing the authorities.
IHBAS
authorities told Newsline that with LAMA patients being less than 3-4 per cent
of total admissions, the data for this category was similar to data from other
hospitals.
According to
activist Raj Hans Bansal who filed the RTI with IHBAS, of 43 government mental
health hospitals in the country, IHBAS was the only institution, which replied
to his queries.
“While it is
appreciable that IHBAS is managing such a huge load of patients, 420 patients
going missing in five years is worrying in a mental health hospital since
unlike other ailments, psychiatric patients may not be in a position to choose
what is best for them. Therefore, such hospitals may need special security
arrangements,” he said.
“We have
achieved what the SC had mandated 10 years ago changing a mental health
institution from a custodial institution except perhaps for those people who
are sent to us by judicial authorities. It is a hospital like any other. I do
not agree with the viewpoint that mental health patients need to be watched any
differently, this is the basic principle of the open approach to mental health
reforms,” Dr Desai said.
Dr Desai
added that security guards and attendants were being provided at the hospital
on government funds for high-risk patients, who seemed suicidal or prone to
running away.
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