I am a MHAO, we have a patient serving a 14 week sentence in prison. He is subject to a CTO. The Prison have contacted the RC as the patient is refusing his medication and his mental health has deteriorated. They believe he should be transferred to hospital. Can the RC recall him on the CTO to hospital, or would there be a requirement to seek a hospital order? Can you please confirm the statute/case law that supports the answer? We are getting conflicting information from different sources.
If he’s serving a sentence then he needs to be transferred under s47
Certainly agree there is no way a CTO recall could ever ‘trump’ a prison sentence, so on that basis only s.47 available. Given that MHA s.47 is the statutory power to transfer a sentenced prisoner to hospital, there can be no alternative route as a matter of law. The only way I can imagine the CTO recall power being relevant would be if the patient is some way through the sentence and early release might be being considered anyway, in which case I can’t see why such release from prison custody might not coincide with CTO recall. (This is a personal view, not a corporate one).