Mental health patients not given drug info ONLY a third of mental health patients in NSW say they're told about the side effects of drugs given to them in hospital, new data suggests. The NSW Bureau of Health Information (BHI) surveyed 1028 patients about the quality of care provided to them across the state in 2010 and 2011. The data, released on Thursday, showed 55 per cent of respondents felt they couldn't refuse medicine or treatment, while only 30 per cent said they were completely informed about side effects of the drugs they were taking. One in ten rated their care as poor. The BHI's chief executive, Jean-Frederic Levesque, said the data suggested improvements needed to be made in the way information was given to mental health patients about the care they received. "It goes beyond simply having a proper diagnosis and a good treatment plan," he told AAP. It has to be communicated and coordinated well for patients. The BHI provides independent reports to the NSW government and health care professionals on the performance of the public health system.