The Psychiatric Care Law prohibits keeping a psychiatric patient in a mental health facility involuntarily for more than a week, except following two psychiatric evaluations of the patient have been carried out by psychiatric specialists registered with the regional council for mental health, as the case may be, one from outside the facility and the other working there, provided that one of them is a government employee.
According to the law, the evaluation may not be carried out by two specialists working in one agency. The two evaluations shall be sent to the Regional Council for Mental Health within seven days of the mandatory patient retention, and the form used for this shall be attached to them.
In the event that these procedures are not completed on the specified dates, the case of compulsory admission of the patient ends, and the facility shall bear the consequences that may result from that.
According to the law, the condition of compulsory admission of the patient ends if the Regional Council for Mental Health is not satisfied with the results of the psychological evaluation submitted to it, following examining the patient by the National Council for Mental Health or the Regional Council for Mental Health.
Article (45) of the Psychiatric Patient Care Law stipulates that a penalty of imprisonment for a period not exceeding two years and a fine of no less than five thousand pounds and not more than ten thousand pounds or one of these two penalties shall be imposed on:
1 – Every doctor who deliberately states in his report something that contradicts the reality regarding the psychological or mental state of a person with the intention of entering the facility or removing him from it.
2- Whoever detains or intentionally causes the detention of a person as suffering from a mental or mental illness in places other than the places or conditions stipulated in this law.