VPRS 7453 Trial Leave Registers, Military Mental Hospital Annual Examination Register

This series records the dates of trial leave allocated to patients in the Mont Park Military Mental Hospital. Most patients are allocated a sequential number in volume 1, however this sequence is not used in unit 2. Unit 2 is a record of the Bundoora Ward of the Military Mental Hospital. These volumes may have been maintained separately, however they have been placed together in one series for ease of reference.Details recorded include:patient name,date of admission,period of leave allowed,date returned to Asylum (or if discharged, under which particular section of the Lunacy Act the discharge was permitted)the name of the person responsible for the patient while the patient was on trial leave.Patient/entries are listed in chronological order by date of commencement of trial leave. Trial leave was allocated in six and twelve month periods. Leave was extended in some cases and the dates are recorded. Where further entries for trial leave for the patient are recorded reference is usually made to the next entry.ANNUAL AND QUINQUENNIAL EXAMINATION REGISTERSSection 17 of the Lunacy Amendment Act 1888 required that each patient in every asylum, philanthropic hospital and cottage for the reception of patients and every boarded-out patient was to be examined annually by a medical practitioner appointed by the Governor-in-Council in order to determine their sanity or insanity and to inquire into their general health. This was to occur at least once in every twelve consecutive months of the detention or supervision of the patient. Under a provision of the 1888 Act, the medical practitioner was not to be an employee of any of the asylums. This provision was a direct result of the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Insane and Inebriate 1882-1884 (Zox Commission). Many witnesses before the Commission had alleged that patients were unnecessarily detained in the asylums.The legislation requiring an annual examination of patients was amended by the Lunacy Act 1903 section 88. From 1905 patients were to be examined once every twelve months for their first three years in residence and subsequently once every five years by the Superintendent of the asylum or in the case of a licensed house, by the Government Medical Officer. A report was then to be made to the Inspector-General of the Lunacy Department who in turn reported to the Chief Secretary (from 1950, reports were sent to the Chief Medical Officer of the Mental Hygiene Branch).Annual Examination Register - Mont Park Military Mental HospitalThe back of Unit 2 has been used as an annual examination register. Details recorded include admission date, name, date of last examination, date of next due examination. There is an index by patient name near the back of the volume.