Commentary Part 1 – Amendments to Mental Health Act 1983 Chapter 8 - Miscellaneous Section 46: Local Health Boards
182.Section 46 adds a reference to LHBs to the definition of “the managers” of hospitals in section 145(1) of the 1983 Act. Hospital managers have a variety of functions under the 1983 Act and the definition of “the managers” identifies the body or people who are the managers of each hospital, depending on who owns or runs it.
183.LHBs are statutory NHS bodies established by Welsh Ministers under section 11 of the National Health Service (Wales) Act 2006.
184.Most hospitals in Wales are vested in NHS trusts, but in Powys they are vested in the LHB established for that area. In the 1983 Act, LHBs are not specifically mentioned in the definition of “the managers”. Subsection (1) of section 46 accordingly provides that, for the purposes of the 1983 Act, LHBs are the managers of hospitals vested in those Boards.
185.Subsection (2) makes an equivalent addition to section 19(3) of the 1983 Act clarifying that LHBs may also move such patients liable to be detained in one of their hospitals to another.