The High Court has upheld the involuntary detention of a 69-year-old woman at St Patrick’s Hospital in Dublin, despite a Mental Health Tribunal having ordered her release from an earlier detention nine days previously.
The woman, identified as C.C., had a long history of psychiatric treatment and had been admitted involuntarily to St Patrick’s on 9 December 2008. A Mental Health Tribunal affirmed that admission later that month.
On 5 January 2009, however, a further tribunal revoked a renewal order. Despite medical evidence that C.C. continued to require treatment, the tribunal found that she was no longer suffering from a mental disorder within the statutory definition. She then remained in the hospital voluntarily.
On 14 January, after informing staff that she intended to leave and denying that she was unwell, her treating psychiatrist Dr Martina Corry detained her for up to 24 hours under section 23 of the Mental Health Act 2001. Consultant psychiatrist Dr Séamus O’Ceallaigh assessed her the following day and concluded that she remained manic, had grossly impaired judgment and was likely to deteriorate if discharged. Dr Corry then made a fresh involuntary admission order.
C.C. challenged her detention through an Article 40 habeas corpus application. She argued that the earlier tribunal decision prevented the hospital from detaining her again unless there had been a material deterioration in her condition. She also argued that Dr O’Ceallaigh was not sufficiently independent because he had previously been involved in her treatment.
Mr Justice Hedigan rejected both arguments. He held that the Mental Health Act did not create any period during which a tribunal decision prevented doctors from making a fresh bona fide clinical assessment. Such a restriction, he said, would improperly limit emergency powers designed to protect patients.
The judge also found that section 24 did not require the second psychiatrist to be unfamiliar with the patient’s medical history. He concluded that the hospital staff had acted in C.C.’s best interests and that her detention was lawful. He nevertheless said a further Mental Health Tribunal should sit as soon as possible given the conflicting assessments.