Mental Health Act 1959

37 Visiting and examination of patients

(1) For the purpose of advising whether an application to a Mental Health Review Tribunal should be made by or in respect of a patient who is liable to be detained or subject to guardianship under this Part of this Act, or of furnishing information as to the condition of a patient for the purposes of such an application, or of advising as to the exercise by the nearest relative of any such patient of any power to order his discharge, any medical practitioner authorised by or on behalf of the patient or other person who is entitled to make or has made the application, or by the nearest relative of the patient, as the case may be, may, at any reasonable time, visit the patient and examine him in private.

(2) Where application is made to a registration authority or regional hospital board to exercise, in respect of a patient liable to be detained in a mental nursing home, any power to make an order for his discharge, the following persons, that is to say—

(a) any medical practitioner authorised by that authority or board; and

(b) any other person (whether a medical practitioner or not) authorised under Part III of this Act to inspect the home,

may at any reasonable time visit the patient and interview him in private.

(3) Any person authorised for the purposes of subsection (2) of this section to visit a patient may require the production of and inspect any documents constituting or alleged to constitute the authority for the detention of the patient under this Part of this Act; and any person so authorised, being a medical practioner, may examine the patient in private, and may require the production of and inspect any other medical records relating to the treatment of the patient in the home.