The rights of mental patients in Beijing will be better protected once a draft regulation being examined by the city's legislature has been promulgated.

The new regulation stipulates that those who disclose the identity of mental patients can be fined up to 30,000 yuan (US$3,750).

Doctors who use unauthorized new medicines on mental patients may be prosecuted.

The draft being examined at the 30th session of the Standing Committee of the 12th Beijing Municipal People's Congress on Wednesday also said those who illegally restrict the freedom of mental patients will face civil liability charges.

Beijing has an estimated number of 130,000 patients with serious mental health problems, according to the municipal health bureau.

About 70 percent of poverty-stricken mental patients do not receive free medicine from the local government, nor do they get any help in treatment and recovery, the bureau said.

The draft regulation said families, communities and mental health institutions should work together to help mental patients recover.

(Xinhua News Agency September 15, 2006)