Facing the impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of affected persons as well as mental health care providers, emergency changes have been made to the MHA (Mental Health Act, in the Coronavirus Act 2020), with the intention to reduce the number of psychiatric professionals required to complete the usual statutory processes under the MHA. 

Thus, psychiatric professionals will be able to treat and detain more psychiatric patients, as the system is facing a great strain. The number of acute psychiatric incidents is predicted to rise as an effect of the crisis. 

The changes in the law – once they are brought into force, which has not happened yet – will apply to all patients within scope of the MHA, not only those suspected to be positive of the coronavirus. From a psychiatric perspective, COVID-19 patients will not be treated any differently from other patients under the emergency legislation. It is for The Health Protection (Coronavirus) Regulations 2020 to allow for the detention, isolation and screening of anyone who is suspicious of an infection with the novel coronavirus.  

Some of the changes in the new Act include: 

- Requirements for detaining patients: previously, applications for detention had to include the opinion of two doctors; under the emergency provisions, only one doctor´s opinion is required to certify that a patient satisfies the detention criteria, after a personal examination of the patient. 

- Requirements for treatment and medication decisions: the emergency provisions do not require a second opinion, as is usually the case (if the approved clinician considers that obtaining one would be impractical or lead to a delay), meaning that the clinician in charge of the patient´s care can provide treatment and medication without a patient´s consent, after certifying that the proposed measures are appropriate and necessary, and consulting a person who has been professionally concerned with the patient´s treatment before providing certification.

- Temporary detention: Temporary detention under section 5(2) MHA is extended from 3 days to a maximum of 5 days. Previously, a doctor in charge of a patient´s treatment in a hospital could temporarily detain the patient for the purpose of allowing a MHA Assessment in order to determine whether detention in a psychiatric hospital was required or not. The emergency provisions give any doctor the right to exercise the detention, if he considers that the application of the clinician in charge of the patient´s treatment would be impractical or take too long. 

- Number of Judges in Mental Health Tribunals: Mental Health Tribunals are to operate with only one judge, legally qualified in mental health.