Sixteenth annual medical report : for the year 1861-62, ending July 4th presented to the Committee of Visitors, August 2nd, 1862 and to the Court of General Sessions, October, 1862 / Kent Lunatic Asylum, Barming Heath, Maidstone.

  • Kent County Lunatic Asylum.
Date:
1862
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sixteenth annual medical report : for the year 1861-62, ending July 4th presented to the Committee of Visitors, August 2nd, 1862 and to the Court of General Sessions, October, 1862 / Kent Lunatic Asylum, Barming Heath, Maidstone. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    “ appointed as night-nurses were exempted from all other duties, and their “ attention enforced to the subject. The number of wet and dirty patients “ of course comprises paralytics and epileptics.” (The pet “ turning-out” plan again.) “ According to the present arrangements, there appear to “ to be only two wards on the female side which contain two nurses each; “ the remaining sixteen wards haying the benefit of only one nurse each. “ About the same proportion seems to exist on the male side of the Asylum. “ The alterations now about to be carried into effect, will, we think, to a “ certain extent remedy this defect, but we beg to urge upon the Com- “ mittee the expediency of adding to the staff of male and female “ attendants generally.” (If a ward had but one attendant, there were only 14 or 15 patients.) “ The water-closets have in many wards been doubled in number, and “ they seem to act perfectly well and were quite free from unpleasant smell. “ The wards were also clean and (except a few rooms, owing to some fault “ or error in the drains) quite sweet. We think that the present labour “ of keeping the male wards clean and also the wear of the floors would “ be less if the patients wore slippers while they are in-doors. “ The want of store rooms in each gallery is at present very apparent. “ This defect will be amended in the wards now about to undergo alter- “ ation, but the amendment will be only partial and ought to be extended “ (by some other means) to the rest of the establishment. “ We examined in many instances the beds and bedding of the patients, “ which were clean; but we think that it is very undesirable that coir “ (the present material) should be used.”* (Horse-hair or woollen flock is suggested instead. Coir has been used for 15 years. See entry of August, 1851.) (14.) November 27, 1858, by Commissioners Lutwidge and Nairne. -‘No patient has been subjected to mechanical restraint since the last visit. “ During that period the number of instances of seclusion have averaged “ 6 weekly. “ The several wards and rooms, and the beds and bedding were, when “ we inspected them, clean and generally free from offensive odours. “ The coir in some of the beds and bolsters of patients of dirty propen- “ sides was matted or in lumps. The ticks also, were in some instances “ insufficiently filled. As respects the class of patients last referred to, * Why?