[Report 1969] / Medical Officer of Health, West Sussex County Council.

  • Bernard Newman
Date:
1969
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1969] / Medical Officer of Health, West Sussex County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    {b) Hospital care: In 1959 there were 361 West Sussex cases in subnormal hospitals and in 1969 the figure was 446, In both years almost all were in-patients of the Royal Earlswood Group of hospitals. These numbers were considered too small for valid analysis and it was decided instead to analyze the total population of the Royal Earls- wood Group of hospitals. This has the advantage of providing a much larger population, while including the West Sussex hospital cases. It was not possible to select a ten-year interval because information from hospital or Regional Hospital Board sources dating back to 1959 was not readily available. Sur¬ veys of in-patients in subnormal hospitals were carried out in 1963 and 1968 by the Regional Hospital Board and the Royal Earlswood Group source documents for these surveys have been sampled on a 1:10 basis, giving populations of 1,150 in 1963 and 1,170 in 1968. RESULTS (?) Prevalence The eight-year period under study will be seen to fall naturally into two halves (Table I), In the four years 1961-64 overall ascertained prevalence (Column A) fluctuated between 2.65 and 2.75 per thousand population. In the period 1965-68 prevalence rises from 2.65 at the end of 1964 to 3.07 per thousand population at the end of 1968. Similarly, prevalence rates in community care (Column B) fluctuated between 1.74 and 1.83 between 1961 and 1964 and then rose from 1.74 in 1964 to 2.1 per thousand population in 1968. Hospital in-patients (Column C) do not show the same marked rise since 1964, but if year to year fluctuations in available beds are eliminated by adding the waiting list (Column D) a similar rise is discernible. New ascertainments (Table II) show a similar pattern; a mean rate of 0.15 in 1961-64 rising to 0.19 per thousand population in 1965-68. (//) Hostels and Training Centres Table II shows that hostel provision for the mentally subnormal was unavailable in 1961 but by 1968 was available for 5.1 per cent of those in community care (or 3.5 per cent of all subnormals). Training centre provision was available for 15.3 per cent of those in community care (or 10.2 per cent of all subnormals) in 1961 and had doubled to contain 30.7 per cent of those in community care (or 21.1 per cent of all subnormals) by 1968. Table II Year Population mid-year estimates Ni A seer ta 3W inments Subnormal Persons Total Rate per 1,000 pop. Mean In WSCC hostels Pupils in WSCC training centres 1961 410,930 66 0.16^ — 114 1962 418,470 47 0.11 25 115 V 0.15 1963 425,710 74 0.17 22 122 1964 436,770 62 0.16^ 20 142 1965 444,690 83 0.19' 30 203 1966 450,170 79 0.18 39 247 0.19 1967 455,930 91 0,20 46 293 1968 465,660 87 0.19, 51 303