Mental Treatment Act, 1961

Amendment of section 184 of Principal Act.

16.—(1) The following subsection is hereby inserted after subsection (3) of section 184 of the Principal Act:

“(3A) An application under this section shall not be made unless the applicant is at least twenty-one years of age.”

(2) In subsection (4) of section 184 of the Principal Act “a registered medical practitioner (not being a registered medical practitioner disqualified in relation to the person to whom the application relates)” is hereby substituted for “the authorised medical officer”.

(3) The following subsections are hereby added to section 184 of the Principal Act:

“(6) Where a request for a certificate for the purposes of subsection (4) of this section is made to the authorised medical officer, that officer shall examine the person in respect of whom the certificate is requested and shall give the certificate if he is of the opinion referred to in that subsection.

(7) A registered medical practitioner shall, for the purposes of this section, be disqualified in relation to a person—

(a) if such practitioner is interested in the payments (if any) to be made on account of the taking care of the person,

(b) if such practitioner is the husband or wife, father, step-father or father-in-law, mother, step-mother or mother-in-law, son, step-son or son-in-law, daughter, step-daughter or daughter-in law, brother, step-brother or brother-in-law, sister, step-sister or sister-in-law, or guardian or trustee of the person, or

(c) if such practitioner is a medical officer of a district mental hospital.

(8) Where, the person in charge of an institution having purported to make pursuant to subsection (5) of this section a temporary chargeable patient reception order, it is ascertained that the person to whom the order relates was not ordinarily resident at a material time in the appropriate mental hospital district, both the order and the application by reference to which the order was made shall be as valid for all purposes as if such person had been ordinarily resident at that time in that district.”