Two decades of change: Glenside Hospital population surveys 1960-80

Results of the fifth quinquennial survey of the patients of Glenside Hospital, Bristol, when compared with five yearly surveys over the past 20 years, show that the "run-down" of the hospital continues. There is still an accumulation of long-stay patients, mainly for non-medical reasons. They remain in hospital because of the failure to provide community facilities adequate to their needs. It is suggested that local authorities will never be able to cope with them and that the NHS should be enabled to extend their hospital services into "nursing homes" in the community.