ABSTRACT
On the appointed day on 5 July 1948, all county and borough mental hospitals were transferred to the National Health Service. Hospital management committees were formed, with medical and lay members. On their baptism in the NHS, several mental hospitals were sanctified. The Brighton Borough Mental Hospital at Haywards Heath became St Francis’ Hospital; Winson Green in Birmingham became All Saints. Such renaming evoked the caring tradition of religious orders, but the principle was to make mental institutions indistinguishable by name, thereby reducing stigma. In Cornwall, for example, instead of being sent to the institution still fearfully known as Bodmin Asylum, patients were admitted to the newly christened St Lawrence’s.
