Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000<\/a> states that a Sheriff can give \u201cdirection\u201d about decisions or actions that are related to an incapax adult. The Court in this case stated that there is a \u201cwide general discretion\u201d for the court to decide what is appropriate \u2013 this means the court has a lot of leeway.<\/p>\nThe Court was determined that it was in the mother\u2019s \u201cbest interests\u201d to be put in the specified Care Home. The daughter had refused to move her mother out of NHS hospitals for a three year period and only accepted the possibility after being threatened with a court order.<\/p>\n
Bed blocking is an increasing problem in NHS hospitals around the UK. It is interesting that the Sheriff has the power to order an adult to be physically moved from a place, which is meant to be accessible for all. This poses the question: what is the policy behind the Sheriff\u2019s power? Whilst it is stated that the \u201cbest interests\u201d of the mother necessitated the move, it could be argued that the Sheriff was simply trying to help cut the numbers of hospital patients. Overall this case highlights the authority of the Sheriff and the caution needed by involved parties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The recent case of Minutes for Direction by doctor AB illustrates the power of the Sheriff Court in determining where an \u201cincapax\u201d adult should reside. Incapax means that the adult can no longer make informed decisions about their affairs, so a guardian is often appointed to do this for them.<\/p>\n
The mother had Alzheimer\u2019s disease and so her daughter was her guardian \u2013 she made the decisions about her mother\u2019s welfare, property and finances. The daughter\u2019s powers extended to making arrangements for the long term care of her mother, but she had not yet done so, meaning the mother had been in and out of NHS hospitals for three years…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1917,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[22,30,52,76,87],"yoast_head":"\n
Sheriff Sends Mother to Care Home - Johnson Legal Edinburgh<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n