In the last week I’ve experienced two incidents (separate hospitals) whereby an RC has tried to influence a patient’s ability to apply to a Tribunal by suggesting they will either be kept in longer (i.e. having to wait for the Tribunal to do it as opposed to their planned discharge date) or would be placed on a depot if they go through with the Tribunal (amongst other options such as a CTO).
Should I be reporting this and if so who to?
I was not privy to what was said (obviously). The captioned text is reported on context unknown to me. This does not mean that I am saying you are lying.
If the facts and context represent influence on a patient by the means stated:
[*Illegal - includes breach of quasi-legal rules. Not everybody is aware that ‘quasi-legal’ is part of English law.]
Should any person come to a robust account of such illegality, and if the RC is a medical doctor:
Before reporting anything I’d discuss it with the RC (and any witnesses).
People can be “unreliable historians” or even liars (e.g. in JB v Elysium Healthcare [2025] UKUT 9 (AAC)). The difficulty in establishing what really was said might be what Russell has in mind in his scepticism above. But if the patient wants to pursue it then I guess you would complain to the bodies he mentions.