The National Human Rights Commission of Korea has filed criminal complaints against officials at a psychiatric hospital where patients were illegally placed in isolation and four died. The commission also found unlicensed medical practice at the hospital and recommended administrative action, including suspension of operations, along with measures from the health minister to reform such practices.
The commission said on the 6th that it had conducted an ex officio investigation into human rights violations involving the illegal isolation and deaths of inpatients at a psychiatric institution. It filed a complaint against the hospital's director on suspicion of negligent homicide, confinement and directing unlicensed medical practice, and separate complaints against a nursing assistant and a patient care worker at the same hospital for violating isolation and restraint procedures. Under the revised Criminal Procedure Act that took effect on the 2nd of this month, criminal complaints filed by the commission are referred to the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency.
The commission also recommended necessary administrative action, including suspension of operations and revocation of the hospital's license, over unlicensed medical practice at the facility, where people without medical licenses were allowed to perform medical procedures and licensed personnel were directed to perform procedures outside the scope of their licenses. It is the first time the commission has filed a confinement complaint over prolonged isolation at a psychiatric institution and recommended a review of administrative action over unlicensed medical practice.
The commission made an unannounced visit to the hospital in July to investigate a petition alleging inadequate meals and restrictions on contact with the outside world. During the visit, it confirmed on site that patients were being restrained in places other than designated seclusion rooms and that locks had been installed on some patient rooms. Concluding that the victims were numerous and the rights violations severe, the commission launched an ex officio investigation into the hospital on the 16th of the same month.
Based on the on-site investigation, the commission's Committee on Discrimination Against Persons With Disabilities found that the hospital had engaged in practices resulting in patient deaths from safety incidents and neglect of its duty of care and protection, as well as improper isolation and restraint and violations of freedom of communication. In the first half of this year alone, four patients at the hospital were found in cardiac or respiratory arrest and died either the same day or three days later. The commission filed a complaint against the hospital director on suspicion of negligent homicide, judging the neglect of safety and duty of care to be severe given that no medical staff were on the ward when the four patients went into emergency distress and that they were not adequately monitored.
On the improper isolation and restraint, the commission confirmed that a patient with autism had been held for 200 days in a room fitted with a lock on the grounds that the patient had been stealing other patients' coffee. The commission determined that prolonged isolation with no treatment or protective purpose, along with the failure to keep medical records, amounted to confinement and cruel treatment, and filed a complaint against the director for violating the Criminal Act and the Mental Health Welfare Act.
The investigation also found that the director assigned no medical staff to the hospital from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. each day and instructed nursing assistants and patient care workers to carry out isolation and restraint. The commission found that because these actions were not taken on the orders of a psychiatrist, they constituted the direction of unlicensed medical practice. It filed a complaint against the director for violating the Medical Service Act and recommended that the health minister take steps to reform the practice.
The commission also filed complaints against the nursing assistant and patient care worker who isolated and restrained patients at their own discretion without a doctor's orders, citing violations of the Mental Health Welfare Act. It determined that restraining patients inside their rooms and enlisting other patients to apply physical force during isolation and restraint violated the right to personal dignity guaranteed by the Constitution, and recommended that the director reform the practice.
Finally, on the violation of freedom of communication, the commission confirmed that public telephones had been installed in only four of the hospital's eight closed wards, that inpatients were banned outright from possessing mobile phones, and that phone use was limited to one designated day a week. The commission found that this violated Article 74 of the Mental Health Welfare Act and infringed the freedom of communication guaranteed by the Constitution, and recommended that the director correct the practice.
