Nursing home “no returns” policy, when residents are discharged to the emergency department at 4 am: what does the law say?

To the Editor: We note with interest the letter from Peisah and colleagues.1 A group of oft‐forgotten patients also affected by “no returns” policies is older people with mental illness. We have recent experience of a 72‐year‐old man with diagnoses of schizoaffective disorder and Alzheimer dementia who was admitted to an aged mental health inpatient unit with a relapse of his schizoaffective disorder. He was admitted from a nursing home where he had resided for 4 years, during which time his illness had been stable except for an admission some 12 months earlier.