“Psychiatric Patient Care Law and Mandatory Patient Retention: Rules and Regulations Explained”

Books – Hisham Abdel Jalil

Tuesday, April 18, 2023 07:00 PM

The Psychiatric Patient Care Law allows the responsible psychiatrist to extend the period of compulsory admission stipulated in the previous article to a maximum period of seven days, if the justifications stipulated in Article (13) of this law persist and it was not possible to obtain an independent medical evaluation within the three days. The first is from compulsory entry, with notification of the authorities referred to in the previous article.

A psychiatric patient may not be compulsorily kept in a mental health facility for more than a week except after conducting two psychological assessments of the patient by psychiatric specialists registered with the competent regional council for mental health, as the case may be, one of them from outside the facility and the other from its employees, provided that one of them is a government employee, and in all cases The evaluation may not be carried out by two specialists working in one entity, and the two evaluations shall be sent to the Regional Council for Mental Health within seven days of mandatory patient retention, and the form used for that shall be attached to them..

In the event that these procedures are not met on the specified dates, the case of compulsory admission of the patient ends, and the facility bears the consequences that may result from that..

In all cases, the compulsory admission of the patient ends if the Regional Council for Mental Health is not satisfied with the results of the psychological assessment submitted to it, after examination by the National Council for Mental Health or the Regional Council for Mental Health.