ABSTRACT
The Responsible Medical Officer’s opinion determined the outcome of the hearing, as there was no other medical evidence to set against it. The patient had refused to even see the tribunal doctor, alleging bias. Copious evidence of a disturbed mental state, in the hospital’s medical and nursing notes, was not put before the tribunal. The authors argue that the correct course of action in such circumstances would have been not to proceed with the tribunal, as the patient was not consenting to an examination. In choosing to continue, disproportionate weight was given to a single medical opinion, which was later proven tragically wrong.
