Noting that 1,022 mental health patients across four hospitals in Maharashtra are awaiting their discharge despite being declared fit for the same, the Bombay High Court recently directed the State Mental Health Authority (SMHA) to ensure their discharge process is expedited.
The court noted that “utmost care” has to be taken by the authorities to ensure that “those patients who are fit to be discharged should not continue in the mental health establishment more than necessary.” The bench also said that the review of 475 patients who are in such hospitals for more than ten years should be done on priority basis.
Moreover, it noted that not a single application was received from any person with mental illness about medical records being denied or deficiency of service and the same indicated lack of awareness regarding patients’ rights. The court asked the Authority to initiate campaigns for such persons and their relatives and assistance of Maharashtra Legal Services Authority and NGOs can be sought in that regard.
A division bench of Justice Nitin M Jamdar and Justice Manjusha Deshpande was on August 19 hearing a public interest litigation filed by psychiatrist Dr Harish Shetty seeking implementation of the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017. The PIL argued through advocate Pranati Mehra highlighted the plight of patients admitted in institutions, including a woman, who had languished in Regional Mental Hospital in Thane for 12 years.
Earlier, the court had directed the SMHA to provide cogent data regarding patients at the mental health institutions including their length of stay and the number of discharged patients sent home by the institutes but not accepted by family or returned to the institutions.
As per the data provided by the SMHA, there are 2,672 mental health patients across four mental health hospitals at Nagpur, Thane, Pune and Ratnagiri, out of which 475 patients are in these hospitals for more than ten years while 272 patients have stayed in hospital for period of 5 to 10 years. A total of 1,022 patients are declared fit for discharge but are awaiting discharge from the hospital, while 1,649 patients have been shown as unfit for discharge in the opinion of the doctors.
Out of mental health patients awaiting discharge, relatives of 208 patients are not traceable due to change of their addresses or contact numbers. Total 363 patients are not yet discharged due to poor family support and the reasons for the same include old age relatives, poor acceptance of family members among others. Discharge procedure of 451 patients is in process as they are awaiting response from their families.
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The court sought details about 475 patients who are in hospitals for more than ten years as to whether they were reviewed in preceding three months along with their fitness or whether their stay in such hospitals was required to be continued. The court asked the Review Boards to examine them in case they are not checked yet. The affidavit further stated that eight State Mental Health Review Boards at Thane, Pune, Nagpur, Kolhapur, Nashik, Akola, Aurangabad and Latur were notified in November, 2021, four years after the 2017 Act had come into force.
The court asked the boards to conduct their meetings regularly and as frequently as possible. It asked the senior representative of state social welfare department, District Health Officer, along with the psychiatrist attached to the boards to attend the September 4 meeting of the SMHA to come up with a holistic plan of action to deal with the said issues and minutes of the meeting and reports be submitted to the court by October 5.
The court asked the authorities to apprise it about the issue of rights of prisoners with mental illness during the next date of hearing on October 11.
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