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MENTAL HEALTH ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1961 - SECT 51

Effect of hospital and guardianship orders.

51.(1) Where a court makes a hospital order in respect of a patient, it shall
be the duty of [the Ministry] to give effect to the order by designating a
hospital for the purposes of paragraph (a) of sub-section (2); and the [Health
and Social Services Board administering] that hospital shall receive
the patient accordingly.

(2) A hospital order shall be sufficient authority

(a)for a constable, [a social worker] or any other person directed to do so by
the court to convey the patient within a period of twenty-eight days to such
hospital as [the Ministry] may designate; and

(b)for the [Health and Social Services Board administering] the hospital to
admit him at any time within that period and thereafter detain him in
accordance with the provisions of this Act.

(3) A guardianship order shall confer on the [Board] or person therein named
as guardian the like powers as a guardianship application made and accepted
under Part II.

(4) A patient who is admitted to a hospital in pursuance of a hospital order,
or placed under guardianship by a guardianship order, shall, subject to
sub-section (5), be treated for the purposes of Part II as if he had been so
admitted or placed on the date of the order in pursuance of an application for
admission or a guardianship application, as the case may be, duly made under
that Part.

(5) Sections seventeen and twenty shall not apply to such a patient as
aforesaid, and the power under section thirty-five to order the patient's
discharge shall not be exercisable by his nearest relative; and accordingly
the provisions of Part II specified in the first column of the Second Schedule
shall apply in relation to him subject to the exceptions and modifications set
out in the second column of that Schedule and the remaining provisions shall
not apply.

(6) Without prejudice to any provision of Part II as applied by this section,
an application to the Review Tribunal may be made in respect of a patient
admitted to a hospital in pursuance of a hospital order, or placed under
guardianship by a guardianship order, as follows, that is to say

(a)by the patient, within the period of six months beginning with the date of
the order or with the day on which he attains the age of sixteen years,
whichever is the later;

(b)by the nearest relative of the patient, within the period of twelve months
beginning with the date of the order, and in any subsequent period of twelve
months.

(7) Where a patient is admitted to a hospital in pursuance of a hospital
order, or placed under guardianship by a guardianship order, any previous
application, hospital order or guardianship order by virtue of which he was
liable to be detained in a hospital or subject to guardianship shall cease to
have effect, but if either of the first-mentioned orders, or the conviction to
which it relates, is quashed on appeal, this sub-section shall not apply and
section thirty-four shall have effect as if, during any period for which
the patient was liable to be detained or subject to guardianship under the
order, he had been detained in custody as mentioned in that section.

© 1961 Crown Copyright

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