The fifth annual report of the committee of management of the Metropolitan Imbecile Asylum, Caterham, Surrey : 1874-75.

  • Metropolitan District Asylum at Caterham.
Date:
1875
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The fifth annual report of the committee of management of the Metropolitan Imbecile Asylum, Caterham, Surrey : 1874-75. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    THE DISCHARGES. The discharges have, during the year, been 190 in number;, of these, 29, viz., 17 men and 12 women, were found to be not fit cases for the Asylum, on account of violent, homicidal, or suicidal propensities, and consequently required removal to the County Asylums. Great inconvenience has been experienced in the retention, and removal of such cases after such propen¬ sities had developed themselves, because they, in the first place, have thrown an undue weight upon the Asylum’s construction, resources, and limited staff. This condition of things has, how¬ ever, been remedied by the Local Government Board’s new Order, which, in Art. 15, provides that, as soon as the Medical Superintendent shall be of opinion that the Patient has become dangerous to himself or others, he shall cause notice to be given to the Relieving Officer of the Union or Parish to which the Patient is chargeable, and that the Relieving Officer shall there¬ upon forthwith take the proper steps for the removal of the Patient to the County Asylum. The practice has hitherto been for the Relieving Officer, in the first place, to take such a Patient to the workhouse in London,, and after obtaining the requisite magistrate’s order, medical certificate, &c., subsequently to remove the Patient to the County Asylum, thus subjecting dangerous Patients for several days to a want of skilled care or supervision, and consequent liability to accident. The simpler method, which has already been adopted by Relieving Officers in one or or two instances, is to procure the requisite order before leaving Caterham, and thus direct transfer from one Asylum to another could be made. The recoveries of the year, as anticipated, do not reach the high standard of the previous one, as they only amount to 28 against 61 last year. The cause of this is easily explained, the possibly curable have been mostly sent away recovered, and the cases of those filling their places are so hopeless as not to admit of cure.