Commentary on Sections Part 5 – Emergency Detention Other duties following admission
75.Section 38 places a further series of duties on the hospital managers.  First, they must within 12 hours of receiving the detention certificate inform the parties listed at subsection (4) that the certificate has been granted.  Second, they must notify the parties listed at subsection (4) of the matters which they were given notice of by way of section 37.  Such notice must be given within 7 days of their receiving it from the practitioner who granted the certificate.  Third, if an emergency detention certificate was granted without the consent of a mental health officer, the hospital managers must within 7 days of receiving the information required by section 37 give notice of that information either to the local authority for the area in which the patient resides or (in instances where the hospital managers do not know where the patient resides) to the local authority for the area in which the hospital is situated.
76.The hospital managers are also required by section 230 to appoint an approved medical practitioner to act as the patient’s responsible medical officer. The appointment must be made as soon as is reasonably practicable after the emergency detention certificate is granted. (See paragraphs 419 to 421 of these Notes).