London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
London County Council 1926
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]
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8
will be seen that the number of recoveries for 1926 was slightly less than that for
1925, as also was the number of deaths:—711 recoveries in 1926 as against 717
in 1925, and 1,300 deaths in 1926 as against 1,327 in 1925.
The total number of admissions, both direct and indirect, for 1926 was 3,951,
as against 3,622 for 1925, an increase of 329, while the total number of discharges
was 1,596 for 1926 as against 1,389 for 1925, an increase of 207.
The increase in the total number of patients for whom the Council is responsible
is due obviously to the inevitable accumulation in the Council's mental hospitals
of chronic patients, for whom discharge is not practicable.
Insane
persons
within the
knowledge of
public
authorities,
1890-1927.
18. Details of the total number of lunatics (excluding male private patients
at Claybury Hall) under the care of public authorities in London responsible for
dealing with them are as follows*:—
Table 6.
| Date. | Lunatics under reception orders in County or Borough mental hospitals. | Lunatics in M.A.B. mental hospitals. | Lunatics in workhouses or with relatives and friends. | Total number of lunatics. | Annual increase or decrease of | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lunatics under reception orders. | Total number of lunatics. | |||||||
| 1st January— | (i.) | (ii.) | (iii.) | (iv.) | (v.) | (vi.) | ||
| Increase | Decrease | Increase | Decrease | |||||
| 1890 | 10,104 | 5,566 | 692 | 16,362 | - | - | - | - |
| 1900 | 15,185 | 5,770 | 562 | 21,517 | 5,081 | — | 5,155 | - |
| 1910 | 19,914 | 6,676 | 413 | 27,003 | 4,729 | — | 5,486 | — |
| 1920 | 17,296 | 5,291 | 328 | 22,915 | — | 2,618 | — | 4,088 |
| 1921 | 17,816 | 5,385 | 326 | 23,527 | 520 | - | 612 | - |
| 1922 | 18,349 | 5,320 | 298 | 23,967 | 533 | - | 440 | - |
| 1923 | 18,500 | 5,101 | 279 | 23,880 | 151 | — | — | 87 |
| 1924 | 18,918 | 5,148 | 312 | 24,378 | 418 | — | 498 | — |
| 1925 | 19,060 | 4,976 | 294 | 24,330 | 142 | — | — | 48 |
| 1926 | 19,308 | 4,975 | 245 | 24,528 | 248 | - | 198 | - |
| 1927 | 19,807 | 4,817 | 239 | 24,863 | 499 | - | 335 | — |
| Net increase in 37 years | 9,703 | 8,503 | ||||||
| Average increase per annum | 262 | 229 | ||||||
Metropolitan
Asylums
Board's
accommodation.
19. Table 6 shows that the total number of London lunatics under reception
orders increased in the year by 335. Actually the London County Council had to
provide for 499 additional cases (see table 5), but the cases looked after by the
Metropolitan Asylums Board decreased by 158 and there were 6 fewer patients for
whom the guardians provided care, either in the infirmary or workhouse or
through friends and relatives of the patient. The reduction in the number of
the Metropolitan Asylums Board's cases probably is not unconnected with the
use of a considerable section of the accommodation originally provided by the Board
for "chronic, harmless lunatics," for the reception of cases of mental defect. This
arrangement (to which further reference is made in Chapter III., paragraph 33) has
been of real service to the Council in connection with the administration of the
Mental Deficiency Act, nevertheless it has cast upon the Council the responsibility
of providing a greater proportion of the total accommodation which is required
for the insane. At the same time we are given to understand that the Metropolitan
Asylums Board have not had to refuse applications made by Boards of Guardians for
the admission of chronic, harmless lunatics, such as the Board may receive. There is
no doubt a tendency on the part of the parish relieving officers to apply directly
to the Council for vacancies for all classes of patients who have to be dealt with
under the Lunacy Acts, and it is often difficult to suggest that a "chronic" case
is not really suitable for care in the wards of a County mental hospital. Certainly
* Figures for 1890-1915 and 1916-1919 are given in the Annual Reports for 1915-1919 (Vol. II., p. 16) and 1921
(Vol. II., p. 7).