French Public Health Code
In forceWhen the medical monitoring committee provided for in article R. 3222-4, to which a referral may be made by the psychiatrist in charge of the unit for difficult patients, finds that the conditions referred to in article R. 3222-1 are no longer met, it refers the matter to the Prefect of the department in which the unit is located or, in Paris, to the Police Prefect, who issues an order for the patient to be discharged from the unit for patients with difficult mental health conditions and informs the Prefect who issued the initial order for admission to this unit and the health establishment that requested the patient's admission of his decision. Discharge may be decided in the form of :
1° A lifting of the non-consensual care measure; or
2° Continuation of care without consent either in the health establishment where the patient was at the time of the decision to admit him/her to the unit for difficult patients, or in another health establishment mentioned in article L. 3222-1.
The healthcare establishment that requested the patient's admission organises the continuation of care within the establishment or in another healthcare establishment if necessary. The establishment designated by the prefectoral order admits the patient within a maximum of twenty days.
When the prefect orders the release of a detainee from the unit for difficult patients in the manner provided for in 1°, the detainee's return to detention or to a specially adapted hospital unit is organised as soon as possible under the conditions provided for in Chapter IV of Title I of this book.
