Health (Mental Services) Act, 1981

Place of detention.

17.—(1) Subject to sections 29 and 31 , it shall not be lawful to detain a person under this Act elsewhere than in a district psychiatric centre designated for the area in which he ordinarily resides or in a registered psychiatric centre approved in respect of such an area or generally.

(2) Subsection (1) shall not prevent the admission of a person as a temporary arrangement pending his transfer to a designated centre or the admission of a person as the private patient of an authorised medical practitioner.