Limerick psychiatric patient challenges detention

A psychiatric patient was escorted from a hospital yesterday after a judge ruled that his appeal against involuntary detention in an acute mental health unit should be heard in a court and not at the hospital.

The patient at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) was appealing a decision of a mental health tribunal which decided last month his involuntary detention in hospital was necessary.

The tribunal, which sat at UHL, found the patient was at serious risk to himself or others, that he was seriously ill, and that failure to admit him to psychiatric care was likely to lead to a serious deterioration in his condition.