Annual report of the Board of Control to the Lord Chancellor : 1949.

Date:
1949
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Annual report of the Board of Control to the Lord Chancellor : 1949. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    3/10 (page 3)
    THE THIRTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE BOARD OF CONTROL FOR THE YEAR 1949 To the Right Honourable the Lord High Chancellor My Lord, In pursuance of section 162 of the Lunacy Act, 1890, we beg to submit the following report:— Accommodation At the end of the year 1949 there were 146,228 persons under care under the Lunacy and Mental Treatment Acts, an increase of 1,503 during the year. Of these 142,414 were in hospitals vested in the Minister of Health. The shortage of accommodation continues to be one of the principal handicaps of the Mental Health Service, and it is apparent that additional beds are not being provided in a sufficient number to keep pace with the increase in the demand, which results not from any increase in the incidence of mental illness but from the normal growth of the population of the country. On 1st January, 1950, the overcrowding in the mental hospitals amounted to approximately 14 per cent, as against 12*2 per cent, on the 1st January, 1949. The effect of the shortage of beds, however, is not to be measured solely in terms of actual overcrowding, serious though that is. But it results, unhappily, in the limitations imposed on voluntary admission, and it is known that several hospitals have declined to receive further voluntary patients on the ground that the available accommodation is scarcely sufficient to provide for certified patients who must be admitted. Three factors have contributed to this serious situation. In the first place, there were on 1st January, 1950, 2,753 mental hospital beds diverted to other services. This figure compares with 3,034 on the 1st January, 1949. The return of these beds is not proceeding as rapidly as is necessary. But, of the accommodation that has been returned, no fewer than 2,607 beds were awaiting re-conditioning and re-equipment. The figure on 1st January, 1949, was 2,694. Secondly, the total number of new beds provided during the year by the Regional Hospital Boards for patients under the Lunacy and Mental Treatments Acts, was 92. In the third place, 2,279 beds were not in use on 1st January, 1950 through shortage of staff. This shows a slight improvement on 1st January, 1949, when the number of unstaffed beds was 2,689. Nurses The shortage of nurses continues and in consequence some beds otherwise available cannot yet be used. .The position has improved slightly in total during the year; thus at Mental Hospitals there has been an addition in the year ended 31st December, 1949, of 303 full-time and 618 part-time female nurses, and of 517 full-time male nurses. There results a reduction of the ratio of patients to nurses (2 part-time being counted as one whole-time) from 7-6 to 7-4 for women and from 5-5 to 5-4 for men, over the whole country. The position, therefore, continues to give rise to anxiety especially as the overall shortage is enhanced by the progressive loss of trained and experienced staff, and the continuance of the service even at its present levels is only possible by the use of less trained persons and by the very substantial use of part-time nurses. These have proved of very great value in meeting the immediate