Published 14 September 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b3756
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b3756
News
Mental health charities object to contingency plans for flu epidemic
Oliver Ellis
1 BMJ
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Mental health charities reacted with concern this week in response to government plans to relax mental health safeguards in the event of a worsening flu pandemic.
The Department of Health this week launched a consultation on temporarily changing the Mental Health Act 1983 to mitigate the impact of a possible rise in swine flu cases on mental health services (table
).
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Proposals include reducing the number of doctors needed to involuntarily detain a patient because of mental ill health; extending or abolishing time limits on specific actions, such as the need for inpatients to receive a second opinion on drugs within three months of admission; and giving a broader range of people, such as retired social workers, the powers of an approved mental health professional.
Paul Farmer, chief executive of Mind, the mental health charity, acknowledged that emergency measures should be put in place to
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