MENTAL PATIENTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 604, 5 March 1929, Page 10

MENTAL PATIENTS

ALTERED PROCEDURE CERTIFICATE OF TWO DOCTORS (From Our Resident Reporter) WELLINGTON, To-day. Widespread misunderstanding; ex* * ists with reference to one method of \ procedure under the Mental Defectives Act of last year, declared Dii T. G. Gray, Director-General of A&ebtal Hospitals, to-day. This is with reference to the sec* tion of the new Act which repeals Section 9 of the old statute. The section provided that an order for the reception of a patient in a mental hospital, in case of urgency, might be granted by the superintendent of the institution, provided that a magistrate was advised within 24 hours of the time of admission. There has been some criticism of this, the Impression abroad being that it has abolished the need of the magistrate seeing the patient. In point of fact, says Dr. Gray, the magistrate ha& never been compelled to see the patient, Section 4 of the old Act merely stating that he “might” do so. The altered procedure allows a patient to be admitted to a mental hospital upon the certificate of two medical men. If this is done, however, he must be examined immediately upon arrival by the two assistant medical superintendents of the mental hospital, and also seen by the doctor in charge. This means that in place of the old method a patient is now seen by five doctors before committal, the preliminary examination taking place not in the institution, but in a lodge attached to it. This is considered ample safeguard of the patient. In Scotland, points out Dr. Gray, the magistrate never sees the patient.