TRANSFER OF BROADMOOR PATIENTS (Hansard, 15 March 1962)

§ LORD STONHAM
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the first Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

§ LORD NEWTON
My Lords, the cases of all patients in Broadmoor Hospital are reviewed regularly, and transfers to ordinary hospitals are arranged whenever they are appropriate. There are a number of elderly patients who for medical reasons, have needed treatment in Broadmoor for such long periods that the hospital has become their home. Some of them no longer need the special security afforded by Broadmoor, but have remained there because it has been considered unkind to move them. Nevertheless, some months ago a special examination of such cases was started.

§ LORD STONHAM
My Lords, is the noble Lord aware that two weeks ago an old man of 87 died at Broadmoor, having been there for 76 years, during the reigns of six Monarchs and twenty Home Secretaries? Was he one of the cases to which the noble Lord referred? Can the noble Lord say why such people are allowed to remain at Broadmoor so long when they appear to be suitable for transfer to a mental deficiency institution? And can the noble Lord say how frequently these cases are reviewed?

§ LORD NEWTON
My Lords, I will try to remember all those questions. The answer to the first one is that the 306 man to whom he noble Lord referred, William Giles, was admitted in 1885, at the age of ten, after being found insane on arraignment on a charge of arson. He was reported to be an imbecile and suffering from epilepsy. He always needed hospital care. At first, and for many years after that, there was for practical purposes no alternative form of care for him than Broadmoor, and during more recent years, when there might have been, it was thought that transfer would have been unkind to him. Of course, that kind of case could not arise today.
The great majority of patients in Broadmoor—and there are nearly 900—are subject to the restrictions described in Section 65 of the Mental Health Act, 1959, which means that authority for detention does not expire at any particular period and the patient may not be discharged or transferred or granted leave of absence without the consent of my right honourable friend the Home Secretary. These cases are reviewed at regular intervals by responsible medical officers: at the end of the first year in hospital, again at the end of the second year, and thereafter every two years. During the last ten years the average annual number of patients transferred from Broadmoor to other hospitals has been between 25 and 30 and discharges have been running at about the same level.

§ BARONESS SUMMERSKILL
My Lords, could the noble Lord say what is the cost of keeping a patient at Broadmoor and at a mental deficiency institution?

§ LORD NEWTON
My Lords, I am afraid that I could not answer that question without notice.

§ LORD STONHAM
My Lords, does the noble Lord appreciate that the only reason for this Question is to try to ensure that in this high-security criminal asylum there are not a large number of old men who could be transferred to other hospitals where more suitable facilities exist in considerable measure?

§ LORD NEWTON
My Lords, I appreciate that. I should like to assure the noble Lord and the House that patients are transferred whenever it is considered appropriate. There are three factors which have to be considered when any 307 case comes under consideration: first of all, security, whether it is safe to transfer the patient. Secondly, is it going to be in the patient's own real interests, when he has been there for many years and regards the place as his home and has no other roots? One has to consider whether it would be too unkind to transfer him elsewhere. The third consideration is this. The more of these cases that can be transferred, the better it is for those patients who remain in hospital, because it means that the population is then reduced and there is greater scope for the modern methods of treatment to be applied to those who remain. That is really the position.