Clause 5
Mental Health Bill [Lords]
11:30 am
Rosie Winterton (Minister of State (Health Services), Department of Health; Doncaster Central, Labour)
I believe that the hon. Lady refers to the debate in the House of Lords, in which it was stated that appropriate medical treatment could consist of nothing more than containment of a patient in hospital. We disagree with that. Simply detaining someone in hospital is no more treatment than detaining them in prison.
I refer the hon. Lady to the case of Hutchison Reid, in which the House of Lords considered the treatability test and sensibly observed that the meaning of medical treatment under the 1983 Act was wide enough to cover cure or containment of a patient’s mental disorder or its symptoms. The Lords did not say that containing a patient—simply detaining someone in hospital—was treatment; nor do we, and nor does the Bill. If the court had said that, the treatability test, which the Opposition want to retain, would allow such treatment.
My second point relates to a matter that the hon. Lady raised. The amendment would not require that treatment be appropriate to the individual patient’s overall circumstances, and we want to ensure that a holistic view of the patient is taken and that the treatment is individually based.