No. 13045—L.S.-G.
GOVERNMENT OF BIHAR AND ORISSA.
(MINISTRY OF LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT.)
RESOLUTION.
The 17th December 1930.
READ—
The triennial report on the European Mental Hospital at Ranchi for the years
1927-29.
THE number of patients in this hospital, in which the accommodation
was slightly increased from 198 to 206 during the period under review, showed
a steady increase which reflects its growing popularity. The total number
of patients resident at the beginning of each of the three years of the
previous triennium averaged 158 and during the triennium under review
averaged 192. Another point of interest about these statistics is that the
average number of female patients (96) was exactly the same as that of
male patients and was 20 higher than in the previous triennium. There
were only 6 criminal patients in the hospital last year. More than half the
patients came from Bengal and about a quarter of the rest from the
United Provinces. An average of only 17 came from Bihar and Orissa.
2. The report contains interesting statistics and information about the
various curative methods employed by. Liut.-Colonel Berkeley-Hill and his
staff. His experiment of doing away with the complete segregation of sexes,
which was started in the second year of the triennium, is reported to have
been completely successful, and it is satisfactory to hear from Col. Berkeley-
Hill that his visits to one or two similar institutions in England and in America
(which he had an opportunity of visiting as a delegate of the Government of
India to a Conference of Psychiatrists at the Yale University) satisfied him
that the European Mental Hospital at Ranchi was being run on really up-to-
date lines. The report indeed shows clearly that occupational therapy
has reached a high state of development. The occupational therapy building
was completed in the first year of the triennium, and recent improvements
include cement work, a cookery class, raffia work and mattress making.
The personal interest which Colonel Berkeley-Hill displays in his patients and
the way in which entertainments and amusements are organised for them
is well known to all residents of Ranchi, as well as to the visitors to the mental
hospital.
3. The decrease in the average receipts for the triennium (in thousands
of rupees) from 6,98 to 4,69 has not been explained in the report, but is,
Government understand, due to the fact that heavy loans were taken in the
previous triennium. There was an increase in the mean expenditure from
3,35 to 3,40 (excluding Public Works and Public Health Department charges)
and of the annual cost per patient from Rs. 1,730 to Rs. 1,989.
4. Government desire to thank the members of the Board of Trustees
for their efficient management of the hospital and the visitors for the help
which as usual they gave and to record again their appreciation of the ex-
ceptional abilities and devotion to his work displayed by Liut.-Colonel
Berkeley-Hill. They also desire to convey their thanks to Dr. Pacheco for
successfully administering the hospital during the permanent Superinten-
dent's absence on leave for nearly a year in all during the period, and to the
staff and nursing sisters.
By order of the Government of Bihar and Orissa
(Ministry of Local Self-Government).
G. E. OWEN,
Secretary to Government.