ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the legal, bureaucratic and practical difficulties in obtaining the discharge of restricted patients from special hospitals. In England and Wales, as elsewhere in Great Britain, most people receiving psychiatric treatment in hospital do so as voluntary patients in open hospitals. The admission criteria are applied differently in special hospitals; for bureaucratic rather than clinical reasons. All restricted patients can be discharged either by the home secretary or by the mental health review tribunal. When a serving prisoner is transferred to hospital, the system under which his case would be referred to the Parole Board if he had remained in prison is put on hold. Patients on hospital orders with restrictions enjoy far greater rights with regard to discharge than do transferred prisoners. Some cases presently before the courts, illustrate some of the difficulties that are experienced with the home office. Tribunals should have the powers to order transfer, discharge and leave as the home secretary possesses.
