PART IVCompulsory Admission to Hospital and Guardianship
Procedure for hospital admission
29Admission for observation in case of emergency
1
In any case of urgent necessity, an application for admission for observation may be made in respect of a patient in accordance with the following provisions of this section, and any application so made is in this Act referred to as an emergency application.
2
An emergency application may be made either by a mental welfare officer or by any relative of the patient; and every such application shall include a statement (to be verified by the medical recommendation first referred to in subsection (3) of this section) that it is of urgent necessity for the patient to be admitted and detained under section twenty-five of this Act, and that compliance with the foregoing provisions of this Part of this Act relating to applications for admission for observation would involve undesirable delay.
3
An emergency application shall be sufficient in the first instance if founded on one of the medical recommendations required by section twenty-five of this Act, given, if practicable, by a practitioner who has previous acquaintance with the patient and otherwise complying with the requirements of section twenty-eight of this Act so far as applicable to a single recommendation, but shall cease to have effect on the expiration of a period of seventy-two hours from the time when the patient is admitted to the hospital unless—
a
the second medical recommendation required as aforesaid is given and received by the managers within that period; and
b
that recommendation and the recommendation first referred to in this subsection together comply with all the requirements of the said section twenty-eight (other than the requirement as to the time of signature of the second recommendation).
4
In relation to an emergency application, section twenty-seven of this Act shall have effect as if in subsection (3) of that section for the words " fourteen days " there were substituted the words " three days ".