A Dublin psychiatric hospital had no legal basis for preventing a voluntary patient from leaving a locked secure unit when he tried to go, the Court of Appeal has ruled. The core issues concerned whether the man was a “voluntary patient” as defined in the 2001 Act and whether there was a legal basis for preventing him leaving the hospital on November 21st 2011. Having found the man was a voluntary patient on November 21st 2011, he was free in law to leave the secure unit that day, he said. The man first became a voluntary patient at the hospital in late August 2011 after a psychotic episode at home. While a hospital may lawfully try and persuade a patient to stay, this must involve “persuasion” and not restraint, he added.

Source: The Irish Times February 15, 2018 19:07 UTC