Mental Health Act 1959

28 General provisions as to medical recommendations

(1) The recommendations required for the purposes of an application for the admission of a patient under this Part of this Act (in this Act referred to as " medical recommendations ") shall be signed on or before the date of the application, and shall be given by practitioners who have personally examined the patient either together or at an interval of not more than seven days.

(2) Of the medical recommendations given for the purposes of any such application, one shall be given by a practitioner approved for the purposes of this section by a local health authority as having special experience in the diagnosis Or treatment of mental disorder; and unless that practitioner has previous acquaintance with the patient, the other such recommendation shall, if practicable, be given by a medical practitioner who has such previous acquaintance.

(3) Where the application is for the admission of the patient to a hospital not being a mental nursing home, one (but not more than one) of the medical recommendations may be given by a practitioner on the staff of that hospital, except where the patient is proposed to be accommodated under section five of the National Health Service Act, 1946 (which relates to accommodation for private patients).

(4) A medical recommendation for the purposes of an application for the admission of a patient under this Part of this Act shall not be given by any of the following persons; that is to say—

(a) the applicant;

(b) a partner of the applicant or of a practitioner by whom another medical recommendation is given for the purposes of the same application;

(c) a person employed as an assistant by the applicant or by any such practitioner as aforesaid ;

(d) a person who receives or has an interest in the receipt of any payments made on account of the maintenance of the patient; or

(e) except as provided by subsection (3) of this section, a practitioner on the staff of the hospital to which the patient is to be admitted,

or by the husband, wife, father, father-in-law, mother, mother-in-law, son, son-in-law, daughter, daughter-in-law, brother, brother-in-law, sister or sister-in-law of the patient, or of any such person as aforesaid, or of a practitioner by whom another medical recommendation is given for the purposes of the same application.