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72. When Dr. Edward Mapother was appointed as the first medical superintendent
of the Maudsley hospital, it was a condition of his appointment that it
would be held subject to the pleasure of the Council and that the Council probably
would exercise its pleasure at the expiration of six years at latest. Dr. Mapother
completed six years of office on 8th May, 1928, and we therefore, reviewed the
appointment. The hospital is the first of its kind to be established in this country
and it possesses a number of special features. The work which is carried on at the
hospital is still in process of development. This development has reached its present
stage under the guidance and largely as the result of the energy and high ability
of Dr. Mapother. We came to the conclusion that it was essential for the full
realisation of the purposes for which the hospital had been established that its
present direction should continue, and that it was undesirable that the Council should
exercise the discretionary power to determine the appointment at the expiration of
six years' tenure of the office which was retained when the present holder of the
position of medical superintendent was appointed on 4th April, 1922.
Medical
superintend-
entship.
73. The Council having decided, subject to certain conditions, to accept
the offer of the Child Guidance Council (recently formed for the care of
maladjusted children) for the establishment of a child guidance clinic in London,
to appoint representatives on the Child Guidance Council and on the governing
body of the clinic, and to recognise the clinic as an experiment for three years,
as a school clinic, the Child Guidance Council selected Dr. William Moodie,
the deputy medical superintendent of the Maudsley hospital, for appointment as
psychiatrist and director of the clinic. As the clinic was being established in the first
instance only for an experimental period, and as the appointment of director of the
child guidance clinic was regarded as bringing to the organisation of the new service
qualities and experience which, from the Council's point of view, were desirable,
the Council, on our recommendation, granted Dr. Moodie leave of absence without pay
for a period of twelve months to enable him to accept the appointment.
Child
Guidance
Council—
psychiatrist
and director
of clinic.
74. We have accepted an offer from the Child Guidance Council to lend
to the Council for work in the Maudsley hospital for a period of one year the
services of one of their staff who would be under the direction of the medical
superintendent of the hospital but whose salary would be paid by the Child
Guidance Council.
Child
Guidance
Council—
loan of
social worker.
75. We have entered into a new agreement with the County of London Electric
Supply Company, Limited, for the supply of electric current to the Maudsley hospital.
The revised terms provide that the company shall supply electrical energy for all
purposes at £8 per annum per kilowatt of maximum demand, and a unit charge of
l.25d. (to be reduced from the June quarterly readings to l.2d.), and that the new
conditions shall have effect as from the December, 1927, quarterly readings, shall
remain in force for a minimum period of three years, and shall be subject thereafter
to termination at three months' notice.
Supply of
electricity.
Staff.
76. The established staff of the mental hospitals department (including the
staff at the central offices), numbered, on 31st March, 1929, 608 officers, 3,590 nurses
(male and female) and 931 employees of various erades.
Number.
77. Consequent on our decision to use the Ewell Colony permanently as a
London County mental hospital (see paragraph 4, ante), we have considered as to the
appointment in a permanent capacity of the principal officers necessary for the
administration of the Colony. For some time during the occupation of the
institution by the Ministry of Pensions and for the whole time since, Dr. Leonard
Henry Wootton, M.C., deputy medical superintendent of Colney Hatch mental
hospital, has been seconded to act as medical superintendent, and the Council, on
our recommendation, promoted Dr. Wootton to the substantive position of medical
superintendent with effect from 1st February, 1929.
Changes in
medical staff.