Annual report of the Board of Control : 32nd, 1945.

Date:
1945
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Annual report of the Board of Control : 32nd, 1945. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    mental hospitals, except for the few in which further overcrowding was thought to be too dangerous, and in the larger mental deficiency colonies, space was released by the transfer of patients to other wards or other institutions. Altogether sufficient accommodation was released to provide space for nearly 40,000 casualty beds. This does not, of course, mean that anything like this number of mental hospitals and mental deficiency beds was lost. Mental hospitals and mental deficiency institutions, unlike general hospitals in which practically all the patients are in bed, have to provide day space as well as night space, and the accommodation released provided casualty bed space for approximately double the number of beds surrendered. In mental hospitals alone, 17,204 beds out of a total of 132,890 were released in 1939, and by the end of 1941 the total of beds surrendered had increased to 20,478. In mental deficiency institutions 5,926 beds out of 34,746 were surrendered in 1939. In the original scheme the accommodation released was devoted to civilian casualties, except for the use of Barrow Gurney which was lent to the Navy for the treatment of Naval casualties. But, as time went on, the fighting services become more and more insistent in their demands for beds, both for mental patients and for sick and wounded. Military hospitals for the treatment of mental cases arising in the armed forces were established at Banstead, Oxford, Talgarth and the North Riding. In these units the patients remained still under military discipline and it was thus possible to secure treatment of their mental illness for an agreed period (up to nine months) without resort to certification and at the same time to avoid any question of illegal detention. But the demands of the Army for mental beds were not the only demands from the Services. Half Bracebridge (Lincoln) was handed over to the Army for general hospital purposes, and the whole of Rauceby (Kesteven) was similarly taken over by the R.A.F. The Royal Naval Hospital, Yarmouth, had to be evacuated to Lancaster Mental Hospital, and later a small unit (200 beds) was established at Knowle (Hampshire) for the treatment of mental cases from the Navy which for legal reasons could not be sent to the Royal Naval Hospital. Later again the whole of Exeter City Mental Hospital was handed over to the War Department who placed it at the disposal of the United States Forces. During the course of the war adjustments of the scheme had to be made from time to time among which may be noted the transfer of Hollymoor Mental Hospital from the Emergency Medical Service to the Army for the treatment of Service psychoneurotics. As regards diversion of beds the peak was reached about 1st January, 1943, the Board’s records showing, at that date, 26,428 diverted. The Board take this opportunity of expressing to all visiting committees of mental hospitals and managers of mental deficiency institutions concerned their gratitude for the splendid co-operation they received at every stage of the scheme and their appreciation of the smoothness and efficiency with which it was operated. In doing so they are mindful of the immense burden which the scheme imposed upon the administrative, medical and nursing staffs of the hospitals concerned whose devotion to duty played so great a part in making the scheme a success. Release of medical staff for war service The diversion of accommodation from the mental health service to war service purposes was accompanied by diversion of personnel. Heavy demands were made upon the medical man power of the Country for service in H.M. Forces. The government accepted the recommendations of the Medical Personnel (Priority) Committee that mental institutions in England, Wales