Lunacy Act, 1891

Complaints as to control of patients.

21. If complaints are made by persons resident in the neighbourhood of any hospital that the patients are allowed to go outside the hospital without a sufficient number of officers to control them, or that the patients are allowed to wander at large without any control, the Commissioners may, if they are satisfied that there are primâ facie grounds for such complaints, inquire into the same and may make such order in relation thereto as the Commissioners think just, and the superintendent of any hospital disobeying any such order shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.