§ 408. Hospitals; admission of patients; in general. 1. If in the
judgment of the director of a hospital in the department the number of
patients of the hospital at any time so far exceeds its proper capacity
that suitable care, training or discipline cannot be given to additional
patients, or for other reasons the admission of such additional patients
is impracticable, the commissioner in his discretion, may suspend the
admission of patients to such hospital until such time as they may
properly be admitted.

2. The commissioner shall promptly notify courts and other public
officers empowered to commit persons to such hospital of any such
suspension of admission and of its termination. A person committed to
such hospital before the court receives notice of such a suspension may
be recommitted to another hospital to which he might have been lawfully
committed in the first instance.

3. In the admission of patients to such hospital the several counties
and the city of New York shall, so far as practicable, be entitled to
have in such hospital, patients in the ratio which their respective
populations bear to the population of the state as ascertained by the
latest federal census or state enumeration.