Section 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.