More than three-quarters of people receiving drug rehabilitation services in a government-funded NGO over the past five years were readmitted patients, according to Hong Kong’s Audit Commission, but the organisation has said relapses among recovering addicts was common in the treatment process.

In a report released on Wednesday, the auditor urged the Society for the Aid and Rehabilitation of Drug Abusers, an NGO that provides voluntary residential drug rehabilitation services, to review its programmes in light of the high readmission rate.

“While noting that such a high proportion of readmission might be largely attributable to the chronic relapsing conditions in different drug abuse scenarios, [the auditor] considers that there is scope for service improvements,” the commission said.

Analysing admission numbers to the NGO’s four drug treatment and rehabilitation centres from 2019 to 2024, the auditor found that 76 per cent out of 3,513 admitted cases were of drug abusers returning to the programme after their first discharge.

The commission also revealed that among those readmitted in 2023-24, their average number of readmissions to the programme was four times that over the five-year period. The highest number of admissions for a single patient stood at 17.

Most patients treated by the NGO, which is funded by the Department of Health and the Social Welfare Department, were admitted to Shek Kwu Chau Treatment and Rehabilitation Centre, located on Shek Kwu Chau island to the south of Lantau.

The auditor highlighted two drug addiction treatment cases in its report, including one of a man in his 70s, who had been admitted to the treatment centre 12 times between 2019 and last year. He had resided in the facility for almost three years, with the time between each of his admissions ranging from 20 to 188 days.