Annual report of the Lunatic Asylums Visiting Committee : in relation to the County Mental Hospitals at Brockwood & Netherne : 1923.
- Surrey (England). County Council.
- Date:
- 1923
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Annual report of the Lunatic Asylums Visiting Committee : in relation to the County Mental Hospitals at Brockwood & Netherne : 1923. Source: Wellcome Collection.
20/134 (page 18)
![The weekly maintenance charge for the Home and out-county patients (other than those received under contract), 13/1 per head. The charge for the Napsbury patients is 28/-, and that for the West Ham ones 35/- per week. The reduction in the maintenance rate from what it was at the last visit, 27/5, has chiefly been affected by drawing on the large surplus that had accumulated in the main¬ tenance fund. The actual cost of maintenance during last quarter was 20/8 per head per week. The total accommodation in the hos]3ital, having due regard to day and night space per patient, is for 560 men and 833 women, a total of 1,393. The average number of patients resident during the year ended 31st December last wast 549 men and 815 women. The tendency to overcrowding which was referred to in the report of our colleagues has been avoided by the termination of the contract with the London County Council, and the removal of some of the Naps¬ bury patients. There are now vacancies for 63 patients on the male side, and 18 on the female side. By the absence of noisiness, their general demeanour and many appreciative remarks as to efforts made on their behalf, we thought the patients seemed as a whole very contented. The few patients we saw wearing their own clothing evidently like this privilege, particularly the women who are allowed to make their own “ Jumpers,” etc., and we hope the practice will be extended as widely as practicable. We had several representations as to dis¬ charge, into each of which we inquired. The only complaints we had as to treatment came from an elderly woman (A.B. in Ward E, admitted 20th October, 1920). She was in bed in a single room be¬ cause of her frail, restless condition. She said that about an hour or two before we visited the ward she had got out of bed to look for something, and had been pushed down, striking her head on the floor, by two nurses. Her sight is very bad and she could not recognise or name either, but in a vague, confused manner she attempted to identify the nurse accompanying us and within reach of her hand at that moment. As we found a vertical abrasion on the centre of her forehead with some developing redness around, and as nothing seemed known of the incident, we made full inquiries on the spot. We ultimately ascertained that the Head Nurse of the Block of which E. is one of the six wards, who was not with us when we commenced our inquiries, had while with a Medical Officer in a single room near by actually seen what took place, namely, that the patient being partially blind had walked into and bumped her forehead against the edge of an adjoining door, which, though fully](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30684821_0020.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
