Bulletin of the Royal College of Psychiatrists: Volume 1 -

A Critique of the Report of the Committee of Inquiry, Warlingham Park Hospital
Brian Glaister
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02 January 2018, pp. 10-11
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The Committee's terms of reference were ‘To inquire into the deaths by suicide of patients at Warlingham Park Hospital during 1974 and 1975 and to prepare a Report to the Area Health Authority on these and the wider significance in relation to psychiatric care facilities in Croydon.’ The 143-page Report (Committee of Inquiry, Warlingham Park Hospital 1976) is now being read by the local public who demanded the inquiry and by psychiatric hospital managers who expect to find causes and cures for suicides in their own hospitals. Unfortunately, the Report fails to reveal that the suicides were of doubtful significance; that the suggested causes are of even more doubtful validity; and that there was a period of abnormally low rate immediately prior to the period in question, the causes of which the Committee failed to investigate.

Hospital Admissions: Compulsory Admissions—Social and Clinical Aspects
G. Szmukler
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02 January 2018, p. 8
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This paper examined some social and clinical characteristics of a group of formally admitted patients. Factors of a more long-standing nature preceding the admission were particularly emphasized. The study describes a group of 80 consecutive formal admissions from a London borough and compares them with a random sample of 80 informal admissions. The borough has many characteristics associated with an inner city area, e.g. a high incidence of people living alone, foreign born, single and the elderly.

Mother-Baby Units in Psychiatric Hospitals
Colin Protheroe
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02 January 2018, pp. 12-14
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Middlewood Psychiatric Hospital, Sheffield, has recently provided facilities for the admission of babies with mothers suffering from psychiatric illness. The venture was sufficiently novel and noteworthy to receive mention in national newspapers, and one gathers that medical and nursing staff are pleased and encouraged by their experiences with their first few mother-infant pairs.

Determinants of Prolonged Hospitalization
Isam E. Babiker
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02 January 2018, pp. 8-9
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Examination of the existing literature on long-stay patients reveals two interesting parallel trends: an emphasis on descriptive studies characteristic of British literature and an equally singular emphasis on prediction of outcome in studies from the USA. No attempt has yet been made to combine the two methods. The present investigation represents such an attempt.

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