Uganda
Mental Treatment Act
Chapter 279
- Commenced on 31 August 1938
- [This is the version of this document at 31 December 2000.]
- [Note: The version of the Act as at 31 December 2000 was revised and consolidated by the Law Reform Commission of Uganda. All subsequent amendments have been researched and applied by Laws.Africa for ULII.]
1. Interpretation
In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires—(a)“chief” means any duly appointed chief employed by the administration of a district;(b)“magistrate” means a chief magistrate, a magistrate grade I or a magistrate grade II;(c)“medical practitioner” means a person duly registered as a medical practitioner under the Medical and Dental Practitioners Act or any enactment amending or replacing that Act;(d)“medical superintendent” means any duly registered or licensed medical practitioner deputed by the chief medical officer to be a medical officer in charge of a mental hospital;(e)“mental hospital” means any building or part of a building appointed by the Minister by statutory instrument for the detention, treatment and care of persons of unsound mind;(f)“person of unsound mind” means an idiot or a person who is suffering from mental derangement.Adjudication of persons of unsound mind
2. Inquiry as to a person’s state of mind
3. Medical certificates
4. Adjudication of insanity and admission to a mental hospital
5. Private paying patients
6. Removal of person to a place of detention in urgent cases
If any police officer not below the rank of assistant inspector, any medical practitioner, or any chief is satisfied that it is necessary for the public safety, or for the welfare of a person alleged to be of unsound mind with regard to whom proceedings ought to be taken under this Act, that such person should, before any such proceedings can be taken, be placed under care and control, that officer, practitioner or chief may make an order in the prescribed form (hereafter referred to as an “urgency order”) and thereupon shall remove that person to a hospital or other suitable place of detention; and the person in charge of that place may if he or she thinks fit, by virtue of the urgency order, receive and detain the person therein, but no person shall be so detained for more than ten days, and before the expiration of that time either proceedings shall be taken with regard to the person alleged to be of unsound mind as are required by this Act, or, if the person has recovered meanwhile, he or she shall no longer be detained.7. Authority for reception
A reception order, if it appears to be in conformity with this Act, shall be sufficient authority for any person authorised so to do by the magistrate making the order to take the person of unsound mind and convey him or her to the mental hospital mentioned in the order and for his or her reception and detention in the mental hospital, and the order may be acted on without further evidence of the signature or of the jurisdiction of the person making the order.8. Duration of reception orders
Control of mental hospitals and patients in them
9. Control of mental hospitals
Subject to any directions of the Minister, the chief medical officer shall be responsible for the management and control of mental hospitals, the inmates, the medical superintendents and the staff of the mental hospital.10. Responsibility for maintenance of person of unsound mind
No person who is legally responsible for the maintenance of any child or relative or of any other person shall, by reason of the unsoundness of mind and removal of that child or relative or other person to a mental hospital or elsewhere under the authority of this Act, be absolved from his or her responsibility in that respect, but every such person shall be liable to pay the daily or other rate towards the maintenance of the child, relative or other person, together with any other expenses lawfully incurred in connection with the custody, treatment or removal of the patient under the provisions of this Act, as the chief medical officer, looking to all the circumstances of the case and the persons concerned, shall think just and reasonable; and the Secretary to the Treasury or an officer of the Government or the administration of a district appointed by him or her in that behalf is authorised to demand payment thereof from that person and, if not paid within a reasonable time after the demand, the amount due may be recovered by the Secretary to the Treasury or the officer in any court of competent jurisdiction or summarily as a civil debt.11. Maintenance to be charged to estate of person of unsound mind
12. Superintendent to make an entry of persons received into the mental hospital
13. Every patient subject to control of officers of mental hospital
Upon admission to a mental hospital every patient shall be subject to the directions and control of the chief medical officer and any officers attached to the mental hospital and to the observance of any rules which may be made under this Act.14. Discharge of patients
Every patient admitted to a mental hospital as hereinbefore mentioned shall be kept in the mental hospital until he or she is removed, released on trial, discharged as hereafter provided or dies.15. Weekly entry in journal and case books to be made in a mental hospital
The medical superintendent or the medical officer deputed by him or her to act for the time being as medical officer in charge of a mental hospital shall at least once in every week enter in the prescribed medical journal a statement showing the number of patients of each sex then in the mental hospital, the full name of every patient who is or has been under bodily restraint or in solitary seclusion in a separate room since the last entry, and when and for what period and reasons, and, in case of mechanical means of bodily restraint, by what means, and the full name of every patient under medical treatment, and for what, if any, bodily disorder, and every death, injury and violence which has happened to or affected any patient since the then last preceding entry, and shall also enter into a special case book, within one week of the admission of any patient, the mental state and bodily condition of that patient at the time of his or her admission, and also, within two days of their occurrence, all material changes in the state or condition of the patient, while he or she continues in the mental hospital.16. Inquest on patients
The medical superintendent shall give immediate notice to the coroner of the death of any patient who may die in a mental hospital, and thereupon the coroner shall hold an inquest upon the body of that person in the manner provided by the Inquests Act.17. Discharge of fit patient
When a medical superintendent is of the opinion that any person detained in a mental hospital is fit to be discharged from the hospital, he or she shall at once make a full report on the person to the chief medical officer and, if the chief medical officer is satisfied that the patient is fit to be discharged, he or she shall order the discharge of the patient who shall be discharged forthwith accordingly.18. Discharge of a person on the undertaking of his or her relatives, etc. that he or she shall be taken care of.
19. Patient admitted on application of relatives or guardian may be discharged or removed at their request
20. Release of patient on trial
21. In case of escape patients may be retaken within twenty-eight days
Any patient in a mental hospital who quits the mental hospital otherwise than upon discharge, removal or release on trial in the manner prescribed by this Act, may, without a fresh order and certificates, be retaken at any time within twenty-eight days after his or her leaving the mental hospital by any police officer or any officer or servant of a mental hospital, or any other person authorised in writing in that behalf by the chief medical officer and conveyed back to and received again for care and treatment in the mental hospital.22. Magistrate may order patient to be brought before him or her for examination
23. Appointment of visitors
The Minister shall appoint two or more fit persons to be visitors in respect of each mental hospital, and the Minister may from time to time remove those persons or any of them, and may appoint others in their place.24. Visits to be made not less than once every three months
Not fewer than two of the visitors shall once at least in every three months inspect every part of the mental hospital for which they are appointed and see every person of unsound mind in the hospital and the order and certificates for the admission of every such person admitted since their last visitation and the books of the mental hospital and shall enter in a book to be kept for the purpose (to be called the “visitors book”) any remarks which they may deem proper in regard to the condition and management of the mental hospital and the patients in the hospital and shall sign the book upon every such visit.25. Visitors’ reports
The visitors or any of them shall make reports upon any matters connected with the mental hospital for which they are appointed as and when they shall see fit or as may be specially directed by the Minister.26. Visits may be made at any time
Any such visitor may visit the mental hospital for which he or she is appointed upon any day at such time and for such length of time as he or she may think fit; and the medical superintendent shall on demand of such visitor show to him or her every or any person detained in the mental hospital as a patient or any part of the mental hospital or any house, outhouse, place or building connected with the hospital or in its curtilage.Offences and penalties
27. Signing of certificate by unqualified person
Any person not being a duly registered or licensed medical practitioner who knowingly and wilfully signs a certificate prescribed under this Act commits an offence and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a period not exceeding twelve months.28. False medical certificate
Any duly registered or licensed medical practitioner who knowingly and wilfully in any certificate prescribed under this Act falsely certifies anything commits an offence and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a period not exceeding two years.29. Assisting escape of person of unsound mind from a mental hospital
Any person who wilfully assists the escape of any person of unsound mind while being conveyed to or from or while under care and treatment in a mental hospital, or who hides any person of unsound mind who has escaped from a mental hospital commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding five hundred shillings or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding six months.30. Servant of mental hospital permitting escape of patient
Any attendant or servant of a mental hospital who through wilful neglect or connivance permits any patient to quit the mental hospital otherwise than upon discharge, removal or release on trial in the manner prescribed by this Act commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding five hundred shillings or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding six months.31. Ill-treating patients in mental hospitals
Any person employed at a mental hospital who strikes, ill-treats or neglects any patient in a mental hospital commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding five hundred shillings or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding six months.32. Ill-treating patients absent on trial and obstructing officers
Any person who strikes or ill-treats any person of unsound mind absent from a mental hospital on trial knowing him or her to be of unsound mind, or obstructs any officer of a mental hospital engaged in the execution of his or her duty in connection with the person of unsound mind, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding five hundred shillings or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding six months.33. Selling articles to inmates of mental hospitals
Any person who, without the consent of the medical superintendent, gives, sells or barters any article or commodity of any kind to any patient of a mental hospital either inside or outside the grounds of the mental hospital, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding fifty shillings or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding one month.34. Trespassing on mental hospital premises
Miscellaneous
35. Removal of patients from one mental hospital to another, etc.
36. Certificates to remain in force
In every case in which any patient in a mental hospital has been removed under section 35 and also in every case in which any patient has escaped from a mental hospital, the reception order and the certificates relating to it shall respectively remain in force in the same manner as they would have done if the patient had not been so removed or had not so escaped and been retaken.37. Removal of patients who are strangers
When any person who is not a citizen of Uganda is a patient in a mental hospital and the government of the country of which he or she is a subject, or where he or she or the family or any friend of the person usually resides, agrees that the person should be removed to that country, the Minister may, if he or she is satisfied that the removal of the person is proper and desirable and that adequate arrangements have been or will be made for the removal and the future care of the person, direct that the necessary steps be taken to remove the patient to the country aforesaid and issue his or her warrant accordingly for the removal and custody of the patient.38. Person of unsound mind received into Uganda from any other country
Whenever any person is, with the previous consent of the Minister, brought into Uganda from any other country by virtue of a warrant under the hand of any person duly authorised in that country to sign the warrant, setting forth that the person has been judicially declared in such country to be a person of unsound mind, the person shall, if the warrant is dated within one month of the date of the arrival of that person within Uganda, be deemed to be legally detained under the warrant within Uganda for a period of seven clear days from the date of that person’s arrival as aforesaid, unless proceedings are sooner taken under this Act for the adjudication of the person as a person of unsound mind.39. Fees to medical practitioners
Every duly registered or licensed medical practitioner, not being an officer in the full-time service of the Government, who is required to examine any person under the authority of this Act shall be entitled to such fee as may from time to time be prescribed, which fee shall be defrayed out of monies provided by Parliament except in the case of examination held in connection with an application under section 5.40. Copies of reception order and other documents to be furnished
The medical superintendent of a mental hospital shall, upon the discharge of a person who considers himself or herself to have been unjustly detained as a person of unsound mind, furnish to him or her upon his or her request, free of expense, a copy of the reception order and certificates upon which he or she was confined.41. Protection to persons putting Act in force
42. Actions by persons detained as persons of unsound mind
43. Rules
The Minister may make rules for prescribing forms, fixing fees and generally for regulating the control and management of mental hospitals and any other matters to which this Act relates.44. Act not to apply to criminal lunatics
Nothing in this Act shall apply to criminal lunatics.45. Saving of jurisdiction of High Court
Nothing in this Act shall limit or affect the jurisdiction of the High Court in matters relating to lunacy.46. Appeals
Any person against whom any order of a magistrate is made under this Act may appeal to the High Court within thirty days of the date of the order appealed against, and that person shall be informed of his or her right of appeal by the magistrate by whom the order is made.History of this document
31 December 2000 this version
Consolidation
31 August 1938
Commenced