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5
Horton mental hospital which will release space at present used for nurses'
bedrooms to provide about 118 additional beds for female patients, the provision
at the same hospital of a special treatment building to accommodate 3 female
patients, and the enlargement of C hospital to provide accommodation for 12
additional female patients, and for the erection of additional villas on the Ewell
Colony estate to increase the accommodation at that institution from 429 beds to
921 beds.

Accommodation
expected
to be available
in the
next few
years.
9. It will be seen from the foregoing paragraphs that the position as between
accommodation and requirements during the next few years has been changed since
the date of our last annual report by the proposals to provide further accommodation
for future use, and by the excess of the recorded increase (724) in the number of
patients for whom the Council was responsible to find accommodation on 1st January,
1929 (see table 5 post) above the estimated annual increase (300) which was used as
the basis of the forecast of future responsibilities given in the Council's last annual
report (see Vol. II, p. 5, pår 10).
Forecast of
numbers of
patients to be
provided for.
10. The actual annual increase during the five years ended 31st December,
1928 (see table 5 post) has averaged 390 (192 males, 198 females). On the basis of
a continued annual increase at this rate, the estimated number of patients for whom
the Council will be responsible to find accommodation during the next few years
will be as set out below :—
Males. Females. Total.
1st January, 1929 (actual) 8,692 12,179 20,871
„ 1930 (estimated) 8,884 12,377 21,261
1931 „ 9,076 12,575 21,651
1932 „ 9,268 12,773 22,041
1933 „ 9,460 12,971 22,431
11. A comparison of estimated available accommodation (par. 8) with estimated
future responsibilities (par. 10) indicates that, with the contract accommodation
shown in table 4, there may be sufficient accommodation to meet current demands
during the next few years, if the scheme for the enlargement of the Ewell Colony,
which is referred to in par. 7, can be realised and carried out without great delay.
Nothing in the way of additional accommodation can be hoped for from provincial
mental hospital authorities under contract. The accommodation furnished by the
Metropolitan Asylums Board for chronic harmless lunatics has been allocated to a
substantial degree to cases of mental defect, and is to that extent no longer available
to relieve pressure on the London County mental hospitals. So far as we can judge,
there is little prospect of substantial assistance from suitable vacant accommodation
which may be available when the poor law institutions which are to pass under
the Council's direction at 1st April, 1930, have been taken over and reclassified.
16994 B 2
Comparison
of accommodation
with
requirements.