On Saturday, 29th February 1992, a service of thanksgiving for the life and work of Cane Hill took place in the chapel.

The ceremony opened with the Civic Procession. The Hospital Manager was followed into the chapel by the Mayor of Croydon, Mayor of Bromley, Mayor of Lewisham, Mayor of Southwark, Mayor of Lambeth, Representatives of the Canadian High Commission* and the Representatives of the Health Authorities.

"We have come together as the Family of God in our Father's prescence, to give thanks for all the sacrificial care and concern that has been part of Cane Hill Hospital for many years.

We give thanks for all that has been shown by the staff, in the Training School, on the Wards and in every part of the Hospital's life. We give thanks for the Visitors and Friend's Association for their generosity and care.

We give thanks for all the support and friendship that has been shown by the residents to each other and for the way in which so many have found in Cane Hill Hosptial, healing, safety and peace.

Finally we pray together for all who suffer today, that sufficient help may be made available for them and that in the security of God's peace they may continue to find strength and purpose.

So we offer our thorughts in the Prayer which unites all Christian people, as we say together..."

The Lord's Prayer was then recited after which there were many hymns and readings.

Many thanks to Charles Saumarez for the leaflet.

Cane Hill notepaper - complete with their rather masonic logo and full address and contact information. This form could come in very useful - a full sized copy is included for those wanting to reproduce it.

This was taken very, very seriously at the hospital. This collection of dirty papers (oh, the irony) were concerned with the delay of the policy whilst the second memo started to pick faults with the late-printed document.

Not very interesting at all really. In fact the explorer who scanned it for me called the file 'boring'. Enough said.

Obviously keeping cane hill spotlessly clean was a major undertaking - but with the help of Cholorhexidine and Povidone, the hospital was super shiny.

It's gone downhill now - but just a little.

Now, this didn't happen at cane hill. But Bromley Health Authority felt it worthwhile to send this memo to all the hospitals under their control.

It wasn't just false legs that were found in the soiled linen.

Apparently these sort of things are called Needlestick Incidents.

Anyway, once the carelessness in handling and disposal was addressed, I guess they didn't issue the laundry staff with metal detectors after all.

So, would you end up in cane hill? Perhaps you should take the questionnaire?

Far more sobering is this original Cause Of Death form which was found inside the hospital.

Thanks to Andrew.

A toe tag which would've been tied to the body. These were found in a ward near Portnalls Road by Andrew.

This makes perfect sense. There was a practical, if somewhat morbid, system at Cane Hill where as geriatric and chronic cases were moved to wards towards the back of the hospital. Therefore, death forms would've been kept in quantity on these wards.

Personally I found it rather unnerving - as patients got older, they were shuffled through the wards and moved closer and closer to the mortuary, and by extention, to the graveyard beyond it on Portnalls Road.

Thanks to Andrew.

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