Community Treatment Orders (CTOs) continue to be the subject of much debate, partly over the ethics and effectiveness of the provision, neither of which is the subject of this book, and partly over their complexity, which we do need to address. The essence of a CTO is that the Responsible Clinician needs the authority to recall the patient to hospital. The patient will have clinical needs and problems similar to those of a patient who requires detention for medical treatment in hospital, except that they can be managed safely in the community so long as the Responsible Clinician has the power to recall them to hospital. Given the judgments in relation to section 17 leave, outlined in Chapter 1, it could be argued that these needs can be met by the use of section 17 leave. Whether or not this is true, the MHA requires that a CTO must be considered if leave longer than 7 days is to be granted.