Annual report of the General Board of Control for Scotland : 1923.

Date:
1923
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Annual report of the General Board of Control for Scotland : 1923. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    14/408 (page 8)
    Of these, 7,295 were discharged as recovered, yielding a recovery rate, calculated upon the direct admissions, of 31-64 per cent (28-69 for males, 34-03 for females), that for males being 1-01 above, and that for females 1-37 below, the corresponding rates for the decade 1914-23. The discharges as relieved and^as not improved numbered respectively 2,823 and 51o; and, if these and the 30 discharged as not insane are added to the recoveries, it shows that the absolute discharges from reception orders during the year were 46-25 per cent, of the direct admissions. Deaths numbered 8,355 (males, 4,154, females 4,201), being I, 036 less than in the preceding year. The death rate was extremely low, being 7-71 per cent, of the daily average numbei resident, or 1-28 per cent, below that for 1922, and 0 66 below that for 1921, which was the lowest we had ever recorded up to that time. The rate for males was 8-68 per cent., and that for females 6-95. Transfers to other Care, <hc.—During the year there were transferred (under order) from one institution foi rhe insane to another, or to single care or vice versa, some 3,160 patients, which, with a few additional indirect admissions following dis¬ charge by operation of law, gave rise to 3,177 technically termed indirect admissions. Numbers remaining under care.—The number (110,201) in the foregoing table is the residue after adding to the number at the beginning of the year the direct admissions and deducting the deaths and the total discharges. It represents an increase of 3,954 patients for the year. In considering this increase, regard should be had to the fact that the deaths during 1923 vere actually II, 160 fewer in number than in 1918, a year of exceptional mor¬ tality both in institutions for the insane and in the general popula¬ tion ; and 3,900 fewer than the yearly average for the decennium 1914-23. From this it is obvious that the low mortality rate during 1923 exercised a preponderating influence in the accumula¬ tion of cases during the year. County and Borough Mental Hospitals. 1. General Condition and Progress. Classification.—The classification of the patients in these hospitals is generally improving. Conditions vary in different institutions built at various times under diverse views of the structural requirements of a Mental Hospital. It is not, however, too much to say that the desirability of separating recent cases of mental disorder from those of long standing is now more than ever recognised. To enable this to be done, many Visiting Com¬ mittees are contemplating the erection of suitably planned and well equipped Admission Hospitals and detached Convalescent