The Clinical Tutors' Sub-Committee has received a number of requests for guidance about the accommodation which should be provided for medical staff in psychiatric hospitals and units. It is hoped that the following guidelines will help clinical tutors and others who are planning new psychiatric units or trying to improve facilities within existing buildings, and that it will be useful to College Approval Teams in considering whether accommodation provided for postgraduate training is adequate.

This Conference was held at the Scientific Societies Lecture Theatre, Savile Row, London on 5th February 1979. The President, Professor D. A. Pond, was in the Chair.

1. Services lor the elderly should be a unity tor ‘consumers’ (i.e. patients, families, relerrers). Patients should not be bounced back from one part of the service merely because they seem more appropriate for another part; such redistribution of referrals should be the internal responsibility of the service.

A whole series of problems have delayed the reopening of the Library, not the least of which has been the physical movement of the books stacked temporarily in the basement.

The organization of postgraduate training programmes in individual hospitals is the responsibility of the Psychiatric Tutors. The present arrangements have evolved from the pioneering work of the late Professor Erwin Stengel in the 1950s. From these beginnings a system has developed which now encompasses almost every psychiatric hospital and unit in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, and which has indeed been adopted by other branches of medicine.

Pakistan has an area of 310,403 sq miles, consisting of four provinces and its population is over 70 million. Pakistan came into existence as a separate state at the time of Independence and partition of India in 1947. The country faced many crises which threatened its survival and political stability. Therefore, in spite of good intentions, there has been little growth of health, education and welfare services, so vital for developing countries.

Research in psychiatry is in decline. Fifteen years ago it was the ambition of many registrars in training to do some investigation and publish a paper, and the favoured few at the Maudsley even got an extra degree (the M. Phil.) out of it. People thought it would help them to a consultant post. Now they know it is not necessary. Training has become more formalized, with day-release courses and rotation schemes; and research seems more difficult, often needing specialized service or complex instruments and thousands of pounds.