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Date:

25 October 2006

Category:

Module 4: Mental Health Tribunals

Question:

Where a GP forwards a form with minor errors such as an incorrect date one day out, or a time is incorrectly entered what is the advice re the legal validity of such forms. If the advice in above is that minor errors can be accepted is the advice that such forms can be corrected by the GP at a later date by signing and dating the correction, as is the practice in the UK Thank you

Answer:

Section 18(1)states that a mental health tribunal will review the detention of a patient to determine:

(a) if satisfied that the patient is suffering from a mental disorder, and

(i) that the provisions of sections 9, 10, 12, 14, 15 and 16, where applicable, have been complied with, or

(ii) if there has been a failure to comply with any such provision, that the failure does not affect the substance of the order and does not cause an injustice,

Therefore, the decision will be with the mental health tribunal to decide if errors in the recommendation by a medical practitioner affected the substance of the admission order.

In relation to correction of errors, best practice would dictate that forms are completed correctly. The mental health tribunal when reviewing the detention would make a decison if the amendements in the recommendation for involuntary admission affected the substance of the order