Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for East Ham]
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planned to facilitate active, intensive medical treatment, and to
minimise all those distressing sights and sounds which were so
painfully familiar to those whose duty it was to visit many other
Mental Hospitals. He pointed out that a detached admission unit
and treatment centre planned in the light of more recent experience
and supplemented by the newest type of convalescent
villa would permit early and recoverable cases to pass from the
admission stage to the convalescent stage without having to enter
the main building.
"I believe," stated Mr. Brock, "that when this hospital is
completed, it will be a model of its kind in every way. It will
be a magnificent machine, the most complete, the most modern
in design and, I hope, one of the best equipped machines in the
whole country. While, however, I feel justified in calling it a
magnificent machine, may I remind you that it is not an automatic
machine? Its success will depend-—must depend—on the men
and women who work in it; and, above all, its success must
depend on your choice of medical superintendent."
The Mayor of Southend-on-Sea and the Deputy Mayor of
East Ham paid tribute to the work of Councillor Harper and
Members of the Joint Visiting Committee.
TABLE 7.
Disposition of East Ham Mental Patients on 31.12.1934.
Male. | Female. | Total. | |
---|---|---|---|
Brentwood | 7 | 31 | 38 |
Colchester | 4 | 31 | 35 |
Wells | — | 39 | 39 |
Gateshead | 13 | 61 | 74 |
Powick (Worcester) | 68 | 10 | 78 |
Canterbury | 35 | — | 35 |
Cotford | 9 | — | 9 |
Peckham House | 28 | 34 | 62 |
Gloucester | 29 | 10 | 39 |
Park Prewitt | — | 20 | 20 |
Various Institutions | 12 | 17 | 29 |
Totals | 205 | 253 | 458 |