[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council 1928].

  • London County Council (London, England). County of London.
Date:
[1929?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: [Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council 1928]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    4 Ewell Colony. 4. The arrangement for the use of the Ewell Colony, after its evacuation by the Ministry of Pensions, as one of the London County mental hospitals in the first instance for two years, referred to in the Annual Report of the Council for 1926 (Vol. II., p. 4. par, 7), has been reconsidered, and it has been decided to continue to use the Colony thus without limit of time. This decision was reached because of the necessity to make further provision for the housing and treatment of all types of insanity, including acute cases. It involved the abandonment of alternative proposals which had been discussed, viz., (i) to use the Colony again as it had been used before the War as a specialised institution for the chronic epileptic insane capable of a colony life with a good deal of liberty on parole, or (ii) to transfer the premises for use as a certified institution for the mentally defective. Additional accommoda tion. 5. Comparison of Table I. with the corresponding table in the last Report (Annual Report of the Council, 1927,Vol. II., p. 3) shows a net increase in the total measured accommodation of all the hospitals (excluding the special provision for private male patients at Claybury) of 797 beds (285 for males and 512 for females). The chief factors contributing to this result have been (i) the reversion to use as patients' accommodation at Banstead mental hospital of M4 ward, which had been adapted for use as dormitory accommodation for nurses, and the bringing into use at the same hospital of two female wards which temporarily had been out of use for reconstruction, (ii) the opening of a new admission hospital for 50 female patients at Claybury mental hospital; (iii) at Colney Hatch mental hospital the opening of a new admission hospital for 40 male patients, the re-opening of D ward for 40 male patients, the reclassification and remeasurement of the accommodation for female patients and the use for 18 female patients of single rooms which had served as nurses' bedrooms (see Annual Report of the Council, 1927, Vol. II., p. 4), arrange ments which together give an additional 66 beds, and (iv) the reconversion to patients' accommodation at Long Grove mental hospital (65 males) of J2 ward, which had been used temporarily as dormitory accommodation for nurses. Not all this accommodation, however, was actually available for occupation at 1st January, 1929. (See par. 13.) 6. The accommodation set out in Table I. includes the additional accommoda tion which was in contemplation at the time of publication of the Council's Annual Report for 1926 (see table at p. 5, Vol. II.), except the additional 120 beds for female patients at Horton mental hospital to be set free by the erection of a nurses' home, which has become available, however, since 1st January, 1929. The total measured accommodation available for use at 31st March, 1929, was 20,701 (8,717 males, 11,984 females). New schemes for (providing accommoda tion. 7. In addition to schemes for providing additional accommodation which already are being proceeded with, particulars of which are given in Vol. II. of the Council's Annual Report for 1927 (p. 4, par. 6), we have approved a scheme for the erection of a nurses' home at Banstead mental hospital setting free accommodation for 30 female patients*. The scheme for the erection of admission villas at Banstead, referred to in the same report (Vol. II., p. 4, par. 7) is still under consideration. We have also under consideration schemes for the erection of a nurses' home at Long Grove mental hospital which will release space at present used for nurses' bedrooms to provide about 33 additional beds for male patients, and the erection of a sanatorium for about 30 female patients at the same hospital, for the erection of a nurses' home at Cane Hill mental hospital which will release space at present used for nurses' bedrooms to provide about 76 addi tional beds for female patients, for the provision of a second nurses' home at * In the Annual Report for 1927 (chapter II., par. 7), this number was said, incorrectly, to be 67; that figure represents the number of nurses to be displaced, not the number of patients who will occupy the accommodation vacated.