Mental Health Act 1959

PART VII Special Hospitals

97 Provision of institutions for treatment under conditions of special security

(1) The Minister shall provide such institutions as appear to him to be necessary for persons subject to detention under this Act, being persons who, in the opinion of the Minister, require treatment under conditions of special security on account of their dangerous, violent or criminal propensities.

(2) The institutions vested in the Minister by subsection (3) of section sixty-two of the Criminal Justice Act, 1948, and by subsection (4) of section forty-nine of the National Health Service Act, 1946, shall be deemed to be institutions provided by the Minister under this section.

(3) Institutions provided, or deemed to be provided, by the Minister under this section are in this Act referred to as special hospitals.

98 Administrative provisions

(1) The special hospitals shall be under the control and management of the Minister, and the provisions of Part II of the National Health Service Act, 1946, relating to the local administration of hospital and specialist services shall not apply to those hospitals.

(2) Subsection (1) of section fifty-eight of the National Health Service Act, 1946 (which enables the Minister to acquire land for the purposes of that Act) shall have effect as if the reference to the purposes of that Act included a reference to the purposes of this Part of this Act and as if the reference to any hospital vested in the Minister included a reference to any special hospital.

99 Transfers to and from special hospitals

(1) Without prejudice to any other provisions of this Act with respect to the transfer of patients, any patient who is for the time being liable to be detained under this Act in a special hospital may, upon the directions of the Minister, at any time be removed into any other special hospital.

(2) Without prejudice to any such provision as aforesaid, the Minister may give directions for the transfer of any patient who is for the time being liable to be detained under this Act in a special hospital into a hospital not being a special hospital.

(3) Subsections (2) and (4) of section forty-one of this Act shall apply in relation to the transfer or removal of a patient under this section as they apply in relation to the transfer or removal of a patient from one hospital to another under that section.