I don’t know if this forum is designed for the general public, but I joined anyway.
My husband was recalled to hospital (he’s been on a CTO since September) the paperwork is dated 8:30am 21st May, obviously that ran out at 8:30am on 24th but they issued a new one then and another this morning. They are blaming this on getting the AMHP to do what they’re supposed to.
Is this even legal? What can he do about it?
He is convinced he should be claiming false imprisonment as they aren’t even letting him off the ward 80 miles from home.
The forum is welcome to everyone! My thoughts below:
If you’re sure that he’s still under recall powers then he could be detained unlawfully.
Code of Practice para 29.61
“Once 72 hours from the time of admission have elapsed, the patient must be allowed to leave if the responsible clinician has not revoked the CTO”.
Assuming the first CTO recall notice was valid, this probably couldn’t be extended by second recall notice (relying on “Sessay” and the purpose of statute here - no “lacuna” in the MHA to circumvent prescribed time limits). That invalidity/unlawfulness could extend to any Section 3 if they do revoke after the 72-hour time limit of the original recall notice.
NB: (I’m a solicitor but I’m not your solicitor and my very amateurish views on the scarce information provided are no substitute for tailored legal advice that I encourage you to seek from a local provider).
He is very much on a 3rd recall notice (or at least that’s what they told me on yesterday’s video call) although they haven’t yet given him the 3rd set of paperwork. I have seen the 1st and 2nd ones myself.