P was placed on s2 in community waiting for a bed. Over a week later still no bed. Are there any timescales to either be admitted or the s2 removed. Thank you
Admission must be within 14 days of the 2nd medical examination.
Hi Michelle - the patient must be admitted within 14 days of the date of the last medical recommendation (s6 MHA 1983). Outside this timeframe, the patient must be reassessed.
Also important to note: there isn’t a section running in this situation.
If there’s no bed yet, then the AMHP won’t have made a MHA application yet, so there is no s2 so it doesn’t need to be lifted.
It just means an MHA application for admission can be made once a bed is found, but only within the fourteen days since the last medical examination.
5 Likes
AMHP has up to 14 days to make an application. If a bed does not become available before then, the process ends and the patient would need to be reassessed. Also, during this period the patient is not liable to be detained. They only become liable to be detained once the AMHP makes an application. So, during this interim period, there is no legal framework. The longer this situation goes on the importance of the need to review as to whether or not the s.2 is appropriate in the first place.
The application may have been made, Michael. The ‘bed’ thing is a myth that has evolved over time.
A post was split to a new topic: Whether patient is in AMHP’s custody after MHA application signed