Mental Health (Amendment) Act 1982

6 Patients already in hospital

(1) Section 30 of the principal Act (applications in respect of patients already in hospital) shall be amended as follows.

(2) In subsection (2) (detention for three days on report by medical practitioner in charge of the treatment of the patient) for the words " a period of three days beginning with the day on which the report is so furnished " there shall be substituted the words " a period of seventy-two hours from the time when the report is so furnished. "

(3) After subsection (2) there shall be inserted—

“(3) The medical practitioner in charge of the treatment of a patient in a hospital may nominate one (but not more than one) other medical practitioner on the staff of that hospital to act for him under subsection (2) of this section in his absence.

(4) If, in the case of a patient who is receiving treatment for mental disorder as an in-patient in a hospital and who is not liable to be detained therein under this Part of this Act, it appears to a nurse of the prescribed class—

(a) that the patient is suffering from mental disorder to such a degree that it is necessary for his health or safety or for the protection of others for him to be immediately restrained from leaving the hospital ; and

(b) that it is not practicable to secure the immediate at tendance of a practitioner for the purpose of furnishing a report under subsection (2) of this section,

the nurse may record that fact in writing; and in that event the patient may be detained in the hospital for a period of six hours from the time when that fact is so recorded or until the earlier arrival at the place where the patient is detained of a practitioner having power to furnish a report under that subsection.

(5) A record made under subsection (4) of this section shall be delivered by the nurse (or by a person authorised by the nurse in that behalf) to the managers of the hospital as soon as possible after it is made; and where a record is made under that subsection the period mentioned in subsection (2) of this section shall begin at the time when it is made.

(6) In subsection (4) of this section " prescribed " means prescribed by an order made by the Secretary of State.”