Managers should review patients who do not appeal

BMJ 1995;310:1196 (6 May)

Letters

Managers should review patients who do not appeal

EDITOR,--If authors comment on the law they should cite it correctly.Section 2 (2)(b) of the Mental Health Act 1983 and section 72(1)(a)(ii), as used by tribunals, both state "health or safety,or . . . etc" and not, as Caroline Bradley and colleagues say,¹"health and safety, or ... etc"; this is a considerable difference.The first reason given by the authors for the low rates of appealagainst detention is that patients are content to remain inhospital. If that is so, it is said, they should not be detained.Are the authors content to give electroconvulsive therapy toan informal patient in depressive stupor who not unwillinglyresides in hospital but who cannot consent? A second explanationgiven is that patients are deterred from exercising their rights.Could not a third be that the patients are too sick or confused?

No mention is made of patients' . . . [Full text of this article]

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Relevant Article

Why do so few patients appeal against detention under section 2 of the mental health act?: Caroline Bradley, Max Marshall, and Dennis Gath
BMJ 1995 310: 364-367. [Abstract] [Full Text]