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Proceeding contribution from Baroness Meacher (Crossbench) in the House of Lords on Monday, 26 February 2007. It occurred during Debate on bill on Mental Health Bill [HL].


Mental Health Bill [HL]

My Lords, does the Minister accept that a consultant psychiatrist has had 13 years of training to create the tools for him to make these very difficult judgments? When he mentions other professionals and training, I think that we are probably assuming that he means perhaps days or weeks of training. Does he really think that, in the case of someone suffering from a psychotic illness, anyone other than a psychiatrist, who has had the many, many years of training and experience that I mentioned, can develop the expertise to make these judgments to impose on the individual, possibly for very long periods, a requirement to take medications that that clinician will not understand and the side effects of which that clinician will not understand? Does it not seem incongruous to the Minister to have people taking decisions that they simply do not have the competence to take?


Secondary information

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
689 c1411 
Session
2006-07
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords chamber
Subjects
Consent to medical treatment Carers Conflict of interests Compulsorily detained psychiatric patients Advocacy Electroconvulsive therapy Offenders Medical treatments Patients' rights Mental health services Mental health Relatives Scotland Young people Community treatment orders
Legislation
Mental Health Bill (HL) 2006-07
Link
View this Proceeding contribution on www.publications.parliament.uk