SEACLIFF MENTAL HOSPITAL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22329, 1 August 1934, Page 12

SEACLIFF MENTAL HOSPITAL

OVERCROWDING EVIDENT POSITION BECOMING ACUTE (From Our Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, July 31. On January 1, 1933, there were 1284 patients in the Soacliff Mental Hospital, and at the end of the year 1245, the reduction being mainly due to the transfer in December of 00 male patients to Hokitika, states Dr Hayes in the annual report of Mental Hospitals tabled in the House of -Representatives to-day. During the year 138 patients were admitted under certification, of whom 112 were admitted for the first time. The discharges numbered 56, of whom 36 were recovered, 14 relieved, and six not improved. Sixty-five patients were transferred. The deaths numbered 56, the main causes bein senile decay and heart disease. Voluntary boarders totalled 31 at the beginning of the year, while admissions were 29. Of these four were committed and 24 were discharged. At the end of the year there were 32 voluntary boarders. Despite the reduction in numbers in hospital by 39, overcrowding was still very evident. This amounted to 242. The position had recently become more accentuated on the female side owing to FI wing having to be abandoned as dangerous due to movements of the ground. The position on the female side now was that with the exception of the admission ward there was no female ward in the building with a separate day room and dining accommodation, and Fl itself had to use the corridor for these purposes. As in time No. 3 female wing would be similarly affected, the question of overcrowding on the female side would then be unmanageable, and in the refractory wards the position was naturally more acute.