Mental Health Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 67: 67: Schedule 6 , page 109, line 29, at end insert— ““Duty to provide a second opinion for serious medical treatment (1) This paragraph applies to a person (P) who is deprived of liberty in accordance with this schedule if an NHS body is proposing to provide, or secure the provision of, serious medical treatment within section 37(6) to him. (2) P shall not be given the treatment unless a registered medical practitioner (other than the medical practitioner in charge of the care of the patient) has certified in writing that the patient is not capable of understanding the nature purpose and likely effects of that treatment but that it is in the best interests of the patient in accordance with this Act that the treatment be given. (3) Before giving a certificate under sub-paragraph (2), the registered medical practitioner concerned shall consult two other persons who have been professionally concerned with the patient’s medical treatment, and of those persons one shall be a nurse and the other shall be neither a nurse nor a registered medical practitioner.”” The noble Baroness said: This is a much more straightforward amendment, ensuring that vulnerable patients lacking capacity are not given serious medical treatment without a second medical opinion on its necessity. Where serious medical treatment is contemplated for a person lacking capacity to consent who qualifies for additional safeguards, Section 37 of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 imposes a duty on the responsible NHS body to ensure that support and representation for that person is sought from an IMCA. Examples of the sort of treatment that might be considered serious include ECT, therapeutic sterilisation and withholding of artificial nutrition and hydration. A significant percentage of those covered by these proposals are patients who would meet the criteria for detention under the Mental Health Act, but for their compliance with the treatment proposed for them, or, indeed, because some may be unaware of their treatment being administered to them. Many others will be receiving medication and treatment for either or both mental and physical conditions. Under the Mental Health Act, there is a statutory second medical opinion procedure for medication beyond three months and ECT. The same safeguards should be replicated here. I shall assume that the Minister will understand the motivation behind this, because we debated it at considerable length during the passage of the Mental Capacity Act. Where serious medical treatment is to be, and perhaps sometimes needs to be, carried out upon a person who cannot, because of a lack of capacity, consent, we need the highest possible standards and safeguards. I beg to move.