General
provisions as to applications.
MENTAL HEALTH (AMENDMENT)
Ord. No. 46/88
A211
(3) If it appears to a District Judge, upon application made by the Director of Social Welfare, or by a patient or a relative of a patient, that it would be in the interests of the patient for the guardianship of the patient to be transferred to the Director of Social Welfare or to any other person approved for the purpose by the Judge, the Judge may make an order so transferring the guardianship.
(4) In such circumstances, by such procedures and subject to such conditions as may be prescribed by regulations-
(a) a patient who is for the time being liable to be detained in a mental hospital under this Part may be transferred into the guardianship of the Director of Social Welfare or another person;
(b) a patient who is for the time being subject to the guardianship of the Director of Social Welfare or other person by virtue of an application under this Part or the operation of subsection (1) may be transferred into the guardianship of another person or, as the case may be, of the Director of Social Welfare, or be transferred to a mental hospital.
(5) A patient transferred to a mental hospital in the manner referred to in subsection (4)(b) shall be deemed to be detained under an order made under section 31(1B) upon the date of the transfer.
35A. (1) Subject to the provisions of this section, an application under section 31(1) for detention for observation, and a guardianship application under section 33(1), shall be in the prescribed form and may be made by
(a) a relative of the patient;
(b) a registered medical practitioner;
(c) a public officer in the Social Welfare Department, and every such application shall specify which of those persons is making the application and, if made by a relative of a patient, shall state the relationship.
(2) Before an application under section 31(1) for the detention of a patient for observation is made by a registered medical practitioner or a public officer in the Social Welfare Department, that practitioner or officer shall take such steps as are reasonably practicable to inform a person in Hong Kong appearing to him to be a relative of the patient (if there is such a person) that the application is to be made, and if the medical practitioner or public officer fails to take such steps prior to the detention of the patient in a mental hospital, the medical superintendent shall, as soon as practicable there- after, take them.
(3) No application for detention for observation under section 31(1) or application for guardianship under section 33(1) may be made by any person in respect of a patient unless