Bareilly: Uttar Pradesh government has recently written to its counterpart in Uttarakhand that if it wants a patient with mental illness to be treated in a mental hospital of UP, it should send a request letter to UP government so that the latter may authorize judicial magistrates of Uttarakhand to pass a “reception” order for their admission.The issuance of reception (admission) order is mandatory in case of homeless and abandoned mentally ill patients.In a letter to principal secretary, medical and health services, Uttarakhand government, special secretary GS Naveen Kumar, UP government, said National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) had earlier taken cognizance of the matter that patients from Uttarakhand were not admitted in UP. The letter said if Uttarakhand government wants a patient with mental illness to be treated in mental hospitals of UP, it should send a request letter to UP government.“When Uttarakhand government sends a request letter to the state government, it may authorize judicial magistrates of Uttarakhand to pass a reception order for admission of mentally ill patients here,’’ said Dr CP Mall, director, mental hospital, Bareilly.The NHRC had taken cognizance of the matter in 2016 after the issue was raised that UP hospitals were not admitting patients from the neighbouring state. The rights commission had then sought a reply from the authorities at Bareilly mental hospital in this connection.The director of the mental hospital had claimed that if the state government empowers magistrates of Uttarakhand to pass an order for direct admission here under the provisions of the Mental Health Act, 1987, they could admit such patients here.After the director sent his reply to the NHRC, it was forwarded to the law department of the state government for consideration where it remained pending for over a year. Now, UP government has written to Uttarakhand government about it.The mental hospital currently treats patients from Uttarakhand at its out-patient department (OPD) and family ward but they cannot be admitted to the general ward.According to officials, when the mental hospital was established in 1862, it was then decided that it would admit patients only from 15 districts of UP. However, after objections were raised against the rule, the state government had passed an order in August 2014 allowing patients from across UP to be admitted to the hospital.

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