Ely Hospital

Ely Hospital (Welsh: Ysbyty Trelái) was a large psychiatric hospital near Cardiff, Wales.

Ely Hospital
Shown in Cardiff
Geography
LocationCardiff, Wales
Coordinates51°28′47″N 3°14′12″W
Organisation
Care systemNHS
TypeSpecialist
Services
SpecialityMental health
History
Opened1862
Closed1996
Links
ListsHospitals in Wales

History

The institution was established as a Poor Law Industrial School for Orphaned Children in 1862.[1] The school moved to an adjacent site in 1903, and its original building was then used as a workhouse under the Board of Guardians for accommodating mentally ill, mentally defective and chronic aged and infirm patients. In 1930 control of the institution passed to the Public Assistance Committee of Cardiff City Council. From the establishment of the National Health Service in 1948 it was designated a Mental Deficiency Institution and Mental Hospital and administered by the Whitchurch and Ely Hospital Management Committee.[2]

The hospital was the subject of an inquiry set up by Brian Abel-Smith into abuse of patients in 1969[3] after allegations about pilfering and ill-treatment were published in the News of the World on 20 August 1967. This was the second of many Official Inquiry Reports into National Health Service Mental Hospitals.[4] The report, written by Geoffrey Howe is still referred to within the NHS as containing important lessons. It went beyond the events at Ely itself, to look at the whole system and the way in which people with "mental handicap" – as it was known at the time – were treated within the NHS.[5]

Studies of such enquiries find a similar pattern of events and responses to them.[6] Typically the institutions are isolated and inward looking. Staff are afraid to complain about poor practices and if they do complain they are often not believed. The patients involved are generally people who are not easily able to complain. The reports rarely give voice to the patients.[7]

The Ely Hospital report is regarded as significant in the development of services for these patients. It led to the 1971 white paper Better Services for the Mentally Handicapped and the first inspections of such services.[8] After the introduction of Care in the Community in the early 1980s the hospital went into a period of decline and it finally closed in 1996.[2][9]

See also

References
  1. "Untold stories from the notorious Ely Hospital are heard for the first time in a new exhibition". Wales online. 23 March 2016. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
  2. "Ely Hospital". National Archives. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
  3. "Report of the Committee of Inquiry into Allegations of Ill – Treatment of Patients and other irregularities at the Ely Hospital, Cardiff. March 1969 Cmnd 3975". Socialist Health Association. Retrieved 13 November 2013.
  4. "Official Inquiry Reports into National Health Service Mental Hospitals". The Production and Reproduction of Scandals in Chronic Sector Hospitals. Socialist Health Association. Retrieved 13 November 2013.
  5. "Why the Ely inquiry changed healthcare forever". Wales Online. 6 February 2012. Retrieved 13 November 2013.
  6. "Learning from the past: inquiries into major failures in the NHS since 1968" (PDF). Manchester Business School.
  7. "A voice from Ely Hospital". The Cardiffian. 24 February 2012. Archived from the original on 13 November 2013. Retrieved 13 November 2013.
  8. "Learning difficulties residential home scandals: the inside story and lessons from Longcare and Cornwall". Community Care. 10 January 2007. Retrieved 13 November 2013.
  9. "Ely Industrial School". Workhouses. Retrieved 8 February 2019.

Further reading
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