# The Mental Health (Northern Ireland) Order 1986, Article 20: General provisions as to medical recommendations

Extent: N.I.

(1) The medical recommendations required for the purposes of a guardianship application shall be in the prescribed form and shall satisfy the following requirements, namely—
(a) each recommendation shall be given and signed by a medical practitioner who has personally examined the patient not more than two days before the date on which he signs the recommendation;
(b) where the medical practitioners have examined the patient separately, not more than 7 days must have elapsed between the days on which the separate examinations took place;
(c) one recommendation shall be given by a medical practitioner appointed by RQIA for the purposes of this Part, and the other shall, if practicable, be given by the patient's medical practitioner or by a medical practitioner who has previous acquaintance with the patient;
(d) neither recommendation shall be given by—
(i) the person named as guardian in the guardianship application; or
(ii) any of the persons described in Schedule 1.
(2) A guardianship application shall be sufficient if the medical recommendations on which it is founded are given either as separate recommendations, each signed by a medical practitioner, or as a joint recommendation signed by two medical practitioners.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisi/1986/595/article/20 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/mental-health-northern-ireland-order-1986/article-20
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.