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Mental Health Bill [HL]

I wish to speak briefly in support of this amendment. The noble Earl is absolutely right when he speaks of the evidence that came to the Joint Committee. Indeed, a recurrent theme in the work of the Joint Committee, and the evidence and written representations we heard, was that patients should have the maximum autonomy possible when their mental condition is being treated. Since we published our report, and since the Government’s response, I—and no doubt others on the Committee—have received a steady stream of correspondence from patients and ex-patients. The recurrent theme to emerge from that correspondence is that they do not understand why they were given certain forms of treatment. Nobody explained to them why they were given certain forms of treatment. They may be right or they may be wrong; some of those people, no doubt, will be writing in a misleading way, making misleading statements, or may have misunderstood why they were given certain forms of treatment, but that rather begs the question. The important point is that it should be possible to establish why that patient was given a certain form of treatment. In an earlier part of my career as a practising barrister, I took on a number of clinical negligence cases. From time to time psychiatry negligence cases arose. They are extremely difficult on both sides. They are very difficult to prepare for the claimant because it is in the nature of the case for evidence to be hard to come by. They are very difficult for the clinician because any clinician faced with a claim for professional negligence finds it, naturally, very difficult to deal with—as do all of us in the professions. This amendment requires a very simple change to the way notes are taken, by writing down the reasons why a decision that may have permanent effects on a person’s chemistry has been taken. We hope that the Government will see it as appropriate to include this enhancement of autonomy and understanding within the text of the legislation.