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The rights of voluntary patients in hospital

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Philip Sugarman  and
Julia Moss
Philip Sugarman
Affiliation:
Reaside Clinic, Birmingham B45 9BE
Julia Moss
Affiliation:
Reaside Clinic, Birmingham B45 9BE
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Abstract

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The law in England and Wales regarding consent to treatment is of some complexity, but it remains true that hospital patients have two basic rights: to refuse treatment of any kind, and to leave hospital. Two hundred and seven teaching hospital in-patients were asked about their care, and what would happen if they exercised these rights. Informal psychiatric patients were the most likely to disagree with their treatment in hospital, while almost half of all patients did not know that they had the right to refuse it. Many anticipated coercive responses from staff. Patients in hospital should be better informed of their rights.

Type
Original papers
Information
Psychiatric Bulletin , Volume 18 , Issue 5 , May 1994 , pp. 269 - 271
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1994

References

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Sugarman, P. A. & Long, A. (1992) Informing voluntary patients of their rights. Psychiatric Bulletin, 16, 1477.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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