The psychiatric treatment law issued by the President recently passed on formation National Council for Mental Health By a decision of the Prime Minister headed by the Minister concerned with health or his representative, and the law stipulated the terms of reference of the Council as follows:
1- Supervision and oversight of the regional councils for mental health.
2- Monitoring the implementation of the provisions of this law in mental health facilities.
3- Developing policies that guarantee respect for the rights and safety of mental patients.
4- Publish periodic reports on his work in accordance with what is determined by the executive regulations of this law.
5- Monitoring the conditions of entry, detention, and treatment of mentally ill patients, and ensuring that they enjoy the guarantees and rights stipulated in this law..
6- Deciding on grievances once morest the decisions of the regional councils for mental health.
7- Setting standards for the license issued by the Ministry of Health to manage and operate mental health facilities, and to renew and cancel it.
8- The Council shall have a technical committee of specialized physicians to review patient records when necessary, in accordance with what is included in the executive regulations of this law..
9- The council undertakes the functions of the regional council for mental health in the governorates in which a regional council for mental health has not been formed.
The Psychiatric Patient Care Law includes penalties once morest the psychiatrist in the event that he diagnoses or treats diseases or undertakes any organic treatment, which only doctors may practice, or if he examines the patient’s body or writes any medical or medicinal prescriptions for him.
And the Ministry of Health and Population announced an increase in the number of medical facilities licensed to treat People with mental illnesses Addiction patients, which are registered with all regional councils of the National Council for Mental Health to 167 facilities, in addition to examining 36 new facilities, until the end of the first half of 2022. .
Hossam Abdel Ghaffar, the official spokesman for the Ministry of Health and Population, confirmed that the number of specialist doctors and consultants who applied for registration, and were registered in the records of the National Council for Mental Health, increased to 695 doctors, and the number of inspection doctors in the regional councils for mental health increased to 72 doctors..
For her part, Dr. Manal Al-Attar, Head of the Central Department of the Technical Secretariat of the National Council for Mental Health, said that the Council organized 9 workshops and awareness seminars, in addition to 27 training courses, targeting 652 trainees of mental health doctors, in addition to holding periodic meetings with the patient’s rights committees in the facilities. Governmental and private, to ensure that patients’ rights are fully implemented.
Al-Attar confirmed that the response rate for examining complaints received by the General Administration for the Care of the Rights of the Psychiatric Patient, as well as those received by the unified governmental complaints system, amounted to 100%, and the General Administration for the Care of the Rights of the Psychiatric Patient carried out 84 visits to psychiatric facilities..
She pointed out that the inspection campaigns organized by the National Council for Mental Health, in partnership with the General Administration for Drug Control, succeeded in closing 18 work centers without a license, noting that the total number of serious violations that were urgently referred to the judicial authorities amounted to 12 violations..
