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The Times 23 April 2002 Private hospital performs a public function QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION Regina (A) v Partnerships in Care Ltd Before Mr Justice Keith Judgment April 11, 2002 The decision of the managers of a private psychiatric hospital to change the focus of one of its wards was an act of a public nature susceptible of judicial review. Mr Justice Keith so held in the Queen's Bench Division when declaring that the decision on August 6, 2001 of the managers of a private psychiatric hospital to change the focus of one of its wards was that of a public authority. The claim of A for judicial review, and in the alternative her claim that the decision infringed her rights as protected by articles 3 and 8 of the Human Rights Act 1998, would be heard later on its merits. Ms Fenella Morris for A; Mr Steven Kovats for the hospital owners. MR JUSTICE KEITH said that it might have been that the statutory obligations of the health authorities ended when they arranged for the defendant to provide care and treatment to patients with mental disorders, and that those statutory obligations were not assumed by the defendant. However, there were other obligations imposed on the managers of the hospital, which were not derivative from those of the health authority, which made the decision complained of an act of a public nature. Regulation 12(1) of the Nursing Homes and Mental Nursing Homes Regulations (SI 1984 No 1578) cast a statutory duty directly on the hospital, as the registered person under the Registered Homes Act 1984, to provide adequate professional staff and adequate treatment facilities. Therefore, whether facilities could and should have been provided, and adequate staff made available to enable the treatment which the psychiatrists said should take place, was the subject of specific statutory underpinning. The need for the hospital's patients to receive care and treatment which might result in their living in the community again was a matter of public concern and interest. Further, the hospital's patients who were admitted to the hospital under section 3 of the Mental Health Act 1983, such as the claimant, were admitted by compulsion and not by choice. It followed that the managers of the hospital were a functional public authority for present purposes. Solicitors: J. Keith Park & Co, St Helens; Radcliffes le Brasseur. |