First annual report of the committee of management / Caterham Asylum.

  • Metropolitan District Asylum at Caterham
Date:
1871?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: First annual report of the committee of management / Caterham Asylum. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    It lias not been found necessary to place any Patient under restraint. Seclusion for periods, varying from one to five hours, has been necessary in five cases. In the month of April, one of the Head Female Attendants, Miss Rabbit, died after a short illness ; this was a serious loss to the Institution, as it occurred at a time when, by painstaking work, she had acquired a knowledge of all the female Patients in her division. The respect entertained for her was evidenced by the subscription of a large amount of money by the officers and attendants, liberally assisted by the Committee, to defray the expenses of her funeral, and the erection of a stone to her memory. The necessity of closing the Asylum to visitors during the late severe epidemic of Smallpox was deeply felt by the Patients, but, on the whole, borne with considerable resignation; for¬ tunately, the Asylum was but lightly visited with the disease; only two cases, and those mild in character, having occurred, both on the Male Side, they were at once removed to the detached Infirmary, and made g’ood recoveries. The above almost com¬ plete exemption from the epidemic is probably owing to the fact, that every Patient resident in the Asylum at the time of the outbreak was vaccinated by the Medical Officers, and to the wise direction given by the Committee to the various Boards of Guardians to have their Patients vaccinated previously to being sent. At the end of May it was found desirable to alter the arrange¬ ments in one of the blocks on the Female Side, to give more suitable accommodation for aged and helpless cases, which had been brought in in large numbers. Beds wTere placed on each floor, and the three Wards thus formed—each containing 53 beds —were occupied, as in the Infirmary, day and night, thus doing away with the necessity of taking the people up and down stairs. The beneficial results of this change are evidenced by an almost entire immunity from accidents, and the increased comfort of the Patients.
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