Full description
In 1908 work commenced on the building of a new hospital at Morisset, in the Lake Macquarie region.(1) Personnel were appointed to positions at Morisset Hospital for the Insane on 1 May 1909.(2) By the end of the year 78 male patients were resident at Morisset (3), and by 1911 with the hospital still under construction, temporary dormitories made of wooden frames and calico walls had been erected to accommodate a total of 185 patients.(4) The new hospital at Morisset was intended for "the quiet chronic class of patients" (5), with the hospital operating under the provisions of the Lunacy Act 1898, as amended.
In June 1958 facilities for male criminally insane patients at Parramatta Mental Hospital were closed, with patients transferred to a new maximum security unit at Morisset.(6) By 1962 Morisset Hospital was the acute psychiatric admitting hospital for the northern part of the State, with patients transferred from the Admission Centre at Newcastle. Morisset also provided inebriate services, and facilities in security wards for male prisoners who became mentally ill subsequent to the committal of an offence.(7)
By 1976 Morisset Hospital provided mental retardation services, geriatric services, and facilities for the treatment of forensic patients.(8) In 1994 a new medium security unit for 30 forensic patients was commissioned.(9) Other services were in the process of being relocated to other facilities within the Hunter region, with the number of hospital beds reducing from 219 in July 1994, to 180 in June 1995.(10)
FOOTNOTES
1.Inspector General for the Insane, Report for the year 1908, in Parliamentary Papers 1909, Vol 2, p.204
2.NSW Government Blue Book 1910, p.11
3.Inspector General for the Insane, Report for the year 1909, in Parliamentary Papers 1910, Vol 1, p.470
4.Inspector General for the Insane, Report for the year 1911, in Parliamentary Papers 1912, Vol 1, p.743-44
5.ibid, p.743
6.Health Dept, Histories of various NSW Government Hospitals 1879-1980, Folder for Morisset Hospital, SRNSW Ref:10/50590
7.Department of Public Health, Annual Report of the Director of State Psychiatric Services for the year ended 30 June 1962, in Parliamentary Papers 1962-63-64, Second Session, Vol 4, p.559
8.Report of the Health Commission of NSW for the year ended 30 June 1976, in Parliamentary Papers 1976-77-78, Vol 7, p.784
9.Report of the Hunter Area Health Service for the year ended 30 June 1994, p.48
10.Report of the Hunter Area Health Service for the year ended 30 June 1995, p.66
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