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245
been made to obtain systematic information as to
the dates of discharge of patients from hospital. There
can be little doubt that with the existing insufficient
knowledge of the subject, some supervision over
patients immediately after their return home, would
prove beneficial. Moreover it may be expected that
a systematic record of the circumstances attending the
home-coming of patients, both when return cases
cropped up and otherwise, would tend to elucidate the
causes of such return cases and indicate the means by
which their occurrence may be prevented. The views
of the Asylums Board on the subject can be best
stated by the following excerpt from a report of the
Special and Medical Sub-Committee, to which the
matter was referred for consideration : —
This subject is not new to the Board. It was considered by
them in May last year, when the Ambulance Committee reported
fully upon similar suggestions received from the Incorporated
Society of Medical Officers of Health, and again as recently as
July last year, when the same Committee dealt with correspondence
which had passed between the then South-Western Hospital
Committee and the medical officer of health for the Strand
district.
As the result of their consideration the Board did not see
their way to furnish the information asked for, the following
being the reasons set forth by the Ambulance Committee in their
report of May, 1898, above referred to, viz. :—
"In support of the proposal that medical officers of
"health should be informed of the discharge of patients from
"the Board's hospitals, the writer of the letter states that it
"is thought that much advantage would ensue by enabling