NR relative can give an order / request for the discharge of patient to the hospital managers no less than 3 days - but if this notice has been given within 3 days; then the RC can ‘furnish’ cancel out the notice / request by the NR to the managers on the grounds of patient being ‘dangerous’ etc?
So, if the patient’s relative gave this notice after 3 days - would that evade the RC’s right to ‘furnish’ the order?
What would happen then to the notice? Would it still be cancelled by the hospital managers?
When it says 72 hrs - does that mean from the start of section? How many times can NR give notice?
What difference is there to the overall outcome if the person detained requests a tribunal or the NR on their behalf?
Section 25 isn’t very clear but in practice what happens is that its “order” and the “72 hours’ notice” are combined into one event. The suggested form of wording in the Code of Practice is “I give you notice of my intention to discharge the person named above, and I order their discharge from…” (with a note that “you must leave at least 72 hours between when the hospital managers get this letter and when you want the patient discharged”).
If the order above were to give a date, say, 5 or 7 days away, then the RC still would have the same 72-hour notice period (in which to furnish a barring report) beginning on receipt of the notice/order.
If the RC bars discharge then “no further order for the discharge of the patient shall be made by that relative during the period of six months beginning with the date of the report” (s25(1)(b)).
If the patient applies to the tribunal it will look at the standard criteria. In some cases (section 3 or CTO, but not section 2) the barring report allows the NR to apply to the tribunal, in which case the tribunal will look at “dangerousness” and so is more likely to discharge. If both types of application exist at the same time then the tribunal is likely to join them together and hold a single hearing.