The third episode in a series of nine documentary films about the Bolton Area Health Authority. The Psychiatric Block
The psychiatric patients are waiting to be moved out of their ward, which is unsafe after a fall of plaster. But at the last moment the porters withdraw their labour. At a union meeting they decide that it will be unsafe to the public if psychiatric patients are allowed into the main body of the hospital - that is unless the porters are guaranteed a system of overtime payments for supervisory work. Management capitulates, and the move takes place.
The psychiatric block is now empty, and there are ambitious plans for modernisation. But money is short, and one by one the plans are jettisoned, leaving a demoralised nursing staff to cope with its confused and bewildered patients.
Film recordist CHRIS KING Producer TIM KING