Clause 31
Mental Health Bill [Lords]
2:30 pm
Rosie Winterton (Minister of State (Health Services), Department of Health; Doncaster Central, Labour)
The point of an advance directive is about refusal of treatment, not requesting of treatment. If an advance directive refuses a treatment, then, because we are talking about compulsory treatment, we would want to make sure that advance decisions or directives were taken into account. However, the ability to override the directive would be necessary if the alternative for the patient—an example we used this morning—might be that someone dies. That is where we get to with compulsory treatment. If a patient is refusing treatment and at the same time there is the ability to override that, then the same applies with an advance directive. Somebody might be refusing a particular form of treatment, but the powers of the Act can overcome that.