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Mental Health Bill [HL]

Of course, if such a decision were made arbitrarily without the benefit of advice or discussion with the clinical team as a whole, I could understand the point that the noble Baroness is raising. My point is that the purpose of a responsible clinician is that they are the person with overall responsibility for the patient’s case. Of course they will have access to other professional advice; I am sure that the noble Baroness would not think that it would be otherwise. The responsible clinician is the person with overall responsibility and that is why he or she is the person to make the initial judgment. Some noble Lords have referred to restrictions. The measures are not designed to impose unfair and unjust restrictions on patients in the community.They set an essential framework for the clinical management of patients in the community and for the protection of patients and others from harm. Clearly the engagement with patients, families and carers is important. The code of practice sets out in detail what that means for patients subject to supervised community treatment. A strong and comprehensive package of safeguards is in place for the protectionof supervised community treatment patients. The mechanisms to safeguard those patients are exactly the same as for those patients detained under the Act. In taking forward this provision, we believe that we have placed in the Bill the checks and balances that noble Lords are looking for. There is no question that patients will be trapped under compulsion; our proposals go hand in hand with service improvements and the development of community services in general. This has been an extremely useful discussion. I hope that between Committee and Report we will have an opportunity to discuss these issues more informally. I hope, too, that I have reassured the Committee that, while we are convinced that this is the right way forward, we want to engage with noble Lords in making sure that we have this absolutely right.