Annual report of the Board of Control : 12th, 1925.

Date:
1925
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Annual report of the Board of Control : 12th, 1925. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    216/482 (page 206)
    the consideration of the Committee, and we earnestly hope that a favourable decision concerning it will be come to at an early date. The routine and other investigations as an aid to clinical work should be much facilitated by the addition to the laboratory which will shortly be completed. There has been no use of mechanical restraint. Seclusion has been resorted to in the cases of 39 men and 67 women on 200 and 756 occasions during the past 18 months. The present nursing staff consists of :— Males. Females. Total. Charge 25 18 43 Ordinary - * 61 87 148 Night - - - 15 32 47 Farm and garden - 8 0 8 No women nurses are employed wit£i the male patients. We were told that there is a considerable shortage of nurses on the female side, owing to the difficulty of securing suitable candidates, and we noticed when visiting the wards that some of them were seriously under¬ staffed. We hope that every effort will be made to remedy this. Forty-three of the male and 20 of the female nurses possess the nursing certificate of the Royal Medico-Psychological Association, and 20 men and 40 women have passed the preliminary examination. We were glad to learn that it is proposed to appoint a Sister-Tutor. Dr. Masefield has the assistance of four medical colleagues, Dr. G. N. O. Slater being the Deputy Superintendent. We were glad to learn that a commencement has been made in the building of the new house for the Medical Superintendent. Essex and Colchester Mental Hospitals.—2. Severalls, Colchester. May 16th, 1925. We have to-day completed the inspection of this large institution which we commenced yesterday, and have found it maintained in all its departments in the most admirable order, and to be excellently administered for the care, comfort, and treatment of its patients by Dr. Turnbull and his staff. Since our colleagues’ visit eleven months ago, the following changes have taken place among the patients:— Male. Female. Total. Admitted ----- 92 131 223 Transferred to other care - 8 12 20 Discharged - 43 70 113 of whom had recovered - 22 39 61 allowed out on trial 33 64 97 of whom granted allowances - 10 17 27 Died ------ 29 49 78 We are glad to see from the above figures that full use continues be made of the power of the Committee to test the patients’ fitness for discharge by trial and money allowance whilst so away. Eight men and 14 women were discharged under the provisions of Section 79 of the Lunacy Act, 1890, but at present none have been sent back to Poor Law Institutions under Section 25, or boarded out under Section 57 with relatives or friends. The present accommodation in the institution is for 711 patients on the male, and for 972 on the female side, and as those in residence now number 700 men and 941 women, there are only vacancies for 11 patients on the male and for 31 patients on the female side, and we endorse our colleagues’ remarks made in their last report as to the means for providing extra accommodation.