Health Service Support Department director-general Supachai Kunarattanapreuk said violence against women and children was rising, citing last year's network report, which found that out of 11,542 people admitted to the centres in the 109 hospitals which are currently members of the scheme, 5,094 were girls, 792 were boys and 5,656 were women, most of whom were aged between 18 and 35.

The report revealed 4,762 victims were aged between 11 and 18, 668 were between six and 10 and 456 were under five.

Friends or acquaintances were blamed for more than a third of the violence, a quarter was attributed to husbands and 13 per cent was blamed on other relatives, the report said.

Jealousy and heated arguments were cited as the causes of 24 per cent of the incidents, while alcohol and drug influence was blamed for about 22 per cent. The report said 5,483 cases were sexual assaults while 5,389 were physical attacks and the rest involved mental abuse.

In order to increase the network's effectiveness when taking in victims, all major hospitals in Bangkok joined the scheme, while central and general hospitals elsewhere acted as servers with cooperation from smaller hospitals, said Supachai.

This year the ministry will extend the network to all district and community hospitals to cover the whole country.

The public can call 1669 to report incidents of domestic violence, he said.