Mental Health Bill [HL]

I have put my name to this amendment because the suggested change in the law would be an empowering measure for patients. It would provide a counterweight to the broad powers over patients that are given to detaining authorities. It is not uncommon for a patient or relative to express a wish for a transfer between hospitals, whether this is to be nearer home or because of a preference for one hospital's regime over another. We should be mindful that it is current government policy that prospective patients across the rest of the NHS should be encouraged to express choices in hospital care and that they should be acted on. If we cannot extend this agenda around choice to psychiatric patients, even in this limited way, we risk further excluding them and increasing the stigma of psychiatric treatment. The title of the proposed new clause is perhaps a misnomer as the ““right”” to which it refers is not the right for a patient to move hospital, but a right to have any request for such a move treated with appropriate seriousness by the detaining authority. There is therefore no reason for the Minister to reject the amendment on the grounds that it provides some form of positive right to treatment that can be exercised only at the expense of equitable provision within the NHS. That is not an issue here. The Minister will forgive me for anticipating what may be in his brief for this part of the debate, but I do not believe that the amendment raises problemsin relation to what might be termed ““vexatious petitioners””; in other words, patients or relatives who make repeated and ceaseless requests for the same thing. I recall that the Minister was concerned about this issue in relation to Amendment No. 19. He was anxious over the staff time that might be spent on repeating the reasons why a request had been denied and the effect on some patients of having such a denial repeated endlessly back to them. I think that these concerns are misplaced. Over the years, hospitals have learnt to manage such situations in relation to requests for managers' review of detention, when there are no limits on the frequency or number of requests that may be made for a hearing. If the managers have recently denied a request, giving reasons, and that request is repeated without any change of circumstances, I am sure that it is adequate to refer the patient or relative to the reasons already provided. I support the amendment primarily because it is necessary to build some counter-weights into the1983 Act to compel the worst practitioners into treating patients with greater respect. We need not worry about overburdening good practitioners with unnecessary statutory requirements. If they are any good the statutory requirements will underpin practices that we already have in place. It is the law’s place in this area to establish minimum standards, and this should be one such standard.