Patient tried to kill driver, damages car

A YOUNG psychiatric patient damaged a car and tried to kill its driver in Gordon, Port Moresby, yesterday.
The boy had also damaged some family properties and is now in police custody.
Gordon Police station commander Insp Mark Mosinokave said the boy could not be charged for reason of insanity.
The boy’s parents have appealed to Laloki Hospital to start re-admitting patients as they were a threat to communities. The hospital had since Feb 27 prematurely released some 100 patients after its well water was contaminated by bacteria, causing patients and staff to fall sick with water- borne diseases.
The last of the patients were prematurely released early last month after the psychiatric hospital staff stopped work and closed down the medical facility.
It reopened on April 26, but has yet to admit patients, after the Health Department, Eda Ramu and the hospital signed an agreement for piped water supply.
Mosinokave said the boy would be held in a police cell awaiting doctors from the hospital to assess his mental stability and provide treatment tomorrow. The driver of the car whom the boy had tried to kill has demanded K3,000 compensation.
The boy’s parents said their son had placed them under tremendous pressure to keep him mentally stable and meeting compensation demands.
“We appeal to the hospital to readmit him. It is very difficult to keep him mentally stable,” they said, requesting anonymity.
“In the past three days, he started to behave violently in the community resulting in this incident,” the parents lamented. Hospital clinical supervisor Jeffrey Alphonse told The National yesterday that although the facility had reopened, “we could not re-admit patients as the wards remained unfit for occupation”.
“We can’t admit the boy because our facilities are not ready. The only option available for us now is to send our psychiatric team to the cell to assess his mental stability and to have him medically treated.”