View report page

Admission to hospital and guardianship
The Council's mental welfare officers, known in the Council's service as mental health
social workers, provide a continuous service, available through the 24 hours of each day,
to receive and act upon calls received from general practitioners, hospitals, police and
the public. During office hours such calls are received and dealt with divisionally but outside
these times a nucleus of staff is maintained on duty at the County Hall to deal with
any emergency arising in the London area.
During 1964, 4,689 persons who were alleged to be mentally ill and in urgent need of
care and control were referred to the Council's mental health social workers for investigation,
of whom 3,706 were removed to hospital.
Hospitals serving the area—Only two of the nine psychiatric hospitals which admit
mentally ill patients from London are within the county area, i.e. Springfield and Tooting
Bee hospitals. The remaining seven hospitals are Bexley; Banstead; Cane Hill, Coulsdon;
Horton, Epsom; Long Grove, Epsom; West Park, Epsom and Friern, New Southgate.
In addition five of the London general hospitals, i.e. St. Clements, St. John's, St. Francis,
St. Pancras and Fulham, provide emergency wards for the admission of patients for
observation. Rather more than 200 beds are provided at the general hospitals for these
cases.
There are 21 hospitals which admit subnormal and severely subnormal persons from the
county area; two in London and 19 out-county. The Council acts as the normal channel
for admissions of London patients to these hospitals, assists with the assessment of priorities
and in the provision of medical and social reports. These patients are normally received
in hospital on an informal basis. Difficulties persist in obtaining beds, particularly for
children; at the end of the year 148 children under 16 and 27 patients over this age were
awaiting admission, of whom 61 were regarded as being in urgent need.
Informal admission to hospital—Hospital care under the Mental Health Act, 1959 is
available to all mentally disordered persons who are willing to receive it, with no more
restriction of liberty or legal formality than applies to persons who need such care because
of other types of illness or disability. Patients can be admitted to hospital informally
providing they are not unwilling and can be treated suitably without powers of detention.
The Council's mental health social workers are not, of course, concerned with the large
majority of informal admissions of mentally ill persons to psychiatric hospitals but in
1964, of all removals of such patients dealt with by mental health social workers, 26.6
per cent. were arranged informally.
Compulsory admissions to hospital—The Mental Health Act embodied a new code for
compulsory admission to hospital of mentally disordered patients, whereby compulsion is
applied only in the case of patients who cannot be persuaded to enter hospital voluntarily
but for whom hospital care is essential. It is necessary for an application for compulsory
admission to hospital under the provisions of section 25 (admission for observation) or
section 26 (admission for treatment) to be completed by a mental health social worker or
the nearest relative supported by two medical recommendations. In the case of an
emergency admission under section 29, a mental health social worker or any relative may
make the application and only one medical recommendation (made if practicable by a
practitioner who has previous acquaintance with the patient) is required in the first instance.
During 1964, 977 persons were admitted to hospital for observation under section 25,
367 for treatment under section 26 and 1,583 were the subject of emergency admissions
for observation under section 29.
The police have the power to remove to a place of safety without a medical certificate
any person who appears to be mentally disordered and in immediate need of care or
97
o*