National Health Stories - Scandal

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In a series tracing decisive moments in the life of our National Health Service, medical historian Sally Sheard reveals how the little-known campaigner Barbara Robb exposed glaring gaps in the care of the mentally ill, forgotten in the vast long-stay institutions.

'Mental hospitals', as they were then called, had long been out of sight and out of mind, a low priority in the cash-strapped NHS.

Health Minister Enoch Powell's famous 'Water Tower' speech, in 1961, announced the mass movement of long-stay patients into the community. His optimism for this plan was buoyed by the new generation of psychiatric drugs developed in the fifties.

But nothing changed, until Barbara Robb went to one long-stay institution to visit an acquaintance. She was so horrified by the conditions there that she took up the fight for its voiceless patients.

Her campaign triggered a nationwide investigation, supported by NHS whistle-blowers and patients' families, forcing the government to bring in regular hospital inspections. Robb's legacy also lives on in the more open culture in the NHS that she brought about.

Producer: Beth Eastwood.

Published on Monday, 2nd July 2018.

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