Woodbridge Hospital – British psychiatry in Singapore

Abstract

References 1 Newman SC, Bland RC. Mortality in a cohort of patients with schizophrenia: a record linkage study. Can J Psychiatry 1991; 36: 239–45. 2 Wahlbeck K, Westman J, Nordentoft M, Gissler M, Munk Laursen T. Outcomes of Nordic mental health systems: life expectancy of patients with mental disorders. Br J Psychiatry 2011; 199: 453–8. 3 McCreadie RG. Diet, smoking and cardiovascular risk in people with schizophrenia: descriptive study. Br J Psychiatry 2003; 183: 534–9. 4 Leucht S, Burkard T, Henderson J, Maj M, Sartorius N. Physical illness and schizophrenia: a review of the literature. Acta Psychiatr Scand 2007; 116: 317–33. 5 Inskip HM, Harris EC, Barraclough B. Lifetime risk of suicide for affective disorder, alcoholism and schizophrenia. Br J Psychiatry 1998; 172: 35–7. 6 Tiihonen J, Lonnqvist J, Wahlbeck K, Klaukka T, Niskanen L, Tanskanen A, et al. 11-year follow-up of mortality in patients with schizophrenia: a population-based cohort study (FIN11 study). Lancet 2009; 374: 620–7. 7 Howard LM, Barley EA, Davies E, Rigg A, Lempp H, Rose D, et al. Cancer diagnosis in people with severe mental illness: practical and ethical issues. Lancet Oncol 2010; 11: 797–804. 8 Desai MM, Rosenheck RA, Druss BG, Perlin JB. Mental disorders and quality of care among postacute myocardial infarction outpatients. J Nerv Ment Dis 2002; 190: 51–3. 9 Sullivan G, Han X, Moore S, Kotrla K. Disparities in hospitalization for diabetes among persons with and without co-occurring mental disorders. Psychiatr Serv 2006; 57: 1126–31. Woodbridge Hospital opened in 1928. At the time, the British Governor of Singapore stipulated that the medical superintendent should be an officer 'with some taste for gardening and farming who will help to make the patients interested in such pursuits. Must have attended lectures at the Mental Hospital, Denmark Hill. Must possess the Diploma of Psychological Medicine.' The decree of the Maudsley connection is heeded even to this day – every local medical superintendent or director has had training at the Maudsley and possesses the DPM or MRCPsych; but horticultural predilection is no longer a requirement. The hospital was initially built as a 2500-bed asylum. It expanded to almost 3000 beds after 70 years. Woodbridge Hospital was one of the largest hospitals in Asia. In 2000 it was decided that it should be downsized and the governance restructured. Community psychiatry was emphasised and Professor Norman Sartorius from the World Health Organization suggested two services – the community addiction medicine programme and early psychosis intervention programme. The training and research units amalgamated to form the Institute of Mental Health. For many years doctors from the hospital were sent to Britain for postgraduate education. Many were trained by eminent British psychiatrists such as