Annual report of the Board of Control to the Lord Chancellor : 1950.

Date:
1950
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Annual report of the Board of Control to the Lord Chancellor : 1950. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    with 1949 of 1,459 beds. Overcrowding had decreased from 14 per cent, at the end of 1949 to 12*5 per cent, at the end of 1950, but this figure does not present an altogether accurate picture of conditions. In general when a ward is closed owing to shortage of staff it is necessary to disperse the patients among the other wards. In consequence those wards become uncomfortably overcrowded and the proper classification of patients is impaired. It is often the case that the actual overcrowding in the occupied wards of a hospital where wards have been closed is greater than the overall figure for the hospital suggests. In previous Reports we have drawn attention to the serious consequences attending the shortage of accommodation. There seems little immediate prospect of this shortage being relieved to any great extent, though the attention of the Regional Hospital Boards has been specially drawn to the need for providing more beds. Old People The problem of the care and nursing of old people suffering from mental illness has received much consideration during the past few years. It has become evident that patients over sixty-five on admission to hospital represent an increasing proportion of the total admissions and of the patients resident in the hospital. While the total population in this country has increased in the ten year period 1938-48 by a little less than two-and-a-half million, the numbers who are aged sixty-five and over have risen by over one-and-one-eighth million. The percentage of people aged sixty-five and over in the general population has consequently risen from 7-8 per cent, to 9-3 per cent, in men and from 9-5 per cent, to 12-2 per cent, in women. This change in proportion is reflected also in the admissions to mental hospitals. The figures show a general increase in total admissions for all ages but the rise for patients of 65 and over is higher than would be expected, both for the admissions and for the total number of patients in hospital. For admissions the increases are relatively small for men, but for women they show a proportionate rise of five per cent. The figures for the resident population reflect the change more clearly. The proportion of patients aged sixty-five and over to the total mental hospital population rose from 14-8 per cent, to 19*1 per cent, in men and from 19-7 per cent, in women to 27*6 per cent. This change, however, is not entirely due to the higher admission rate. It could be an indication also that those remaining in hospital live longer. Senile patients sent to hospital are, for the most part, certified, and owing to the shortage of beds they must sometimes be admitted at the expense of other younger patients who need treatment but whose cases may not have the same social urgency. The need for some new arrangements is recognised and Regional Hospital Boards have been urged to make provision outside mental hospitals for many aged people who do not require the elaborate treatment facilities of a large hospital and who though mentally ill and infirm do not need to be placed under certificate as persons of unsound mind. It should not, however, be assumed that old patients once admitted do not leave hospital. Some sample figures indicate that over 30 per cent, of patients of sixty-five and over are discharged from mental hospitals within six months