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53
"their own" case load, carry out full statutory duties and take their
turn on the duty roster.
Although such attachments in a situation when the volume of
work is growing rapidly and the manpower remains limited, make
the Section fully stretched, the officers look forward to further
integration and dovetailing between the hospital and the local
health authority services.
New Developments in the Hospital Services for the Borough
1966 saw considerable expansion of psychiatric out-patient
services and the position at the end of the year is summarised on
the table below:—

The Borough has no Mental Health Centre. "Stepping Stones",
contrary to popular belief, is not a "walk-in clinic", but the building
owned by the hospital authority is used for the dual purpose of
providing rooms for psychiatric out-patient and club facilities. If
at some later date, a Mental Health Centre is contemplated, it
would have to be sited in the Beckenham/Penge area where the
population is dense, with social and mental health problems in
abundance.
The Borough is served by three large psychiatric hospitals,
Cane Hill (Coulsdon), Oakwood (Barming, near Maidstone) and
Bexley. Farnborough Hospital, which prior to the Mental Health
Act, 1959, was a designated hospital with two observation wards
(one male, one female), has been rapidly developing as the acute