Redevelopment of Rushden House as a large hospital for 400 mental patients is on the programme of the Oxford Regional Hospital Board. It may take up to ten years to accomplish, but rough estimates of the scheme have been circulated, and it is thought that the cost may be £1,500,000 or more.

The choice of Rushden House is not final but is regarded as highly probable in view of the geographical position and of the fact that the time is approaching when Northamptonshire may be able to dispense with one of its tuberculosis treatment centres.

There is also plenty of land around Rushden House, which is already in the possession of the authorities and could be used for building purposes. Some of it stretches to the neighbourhood of Bedford Road.

All the mental hospitals in the area of the Oxford Board are in the southern half of the region, with the result that patients from the northern half are seldom visited. The choice of Rushden would meet this problem, and it is thought that conditions for obtaining staff and providing recreational facilities would be favourable.

The board is providing new accommodation for mental defectives at Bradwell Grove, but even then there will be a considerable shortage of beds. It is therefore a certainty that the board will go ahead when circumstances permit. Among these the financial factor is uppermost and could result in considerable delay.

The fact that Rushden House, for so long devoted to the treatment of tuberculosis, is named as the most likely site for the hospital, indicates a triumph for the Northamptonshire authorities in their fight against this disease.

There will still, of course, be a need for sanatoria in the county, but the number of TB cases, especially among women, is happily declining.

At Rushden House this week it is the lowest ever, and of the 52 patients in residence, ten are suffering from chest complaints other than tuberculosis. New notifications last week were also the lowest.