{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,24]],"date-time":"2025-09-24T19:10:27Z","timestamp":1758741027764,"version":"3.44.0"},"reference-count":65,"publisher":"BMJ","issue":"1","content-domain":{"domain":["bmj.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Med Humanities"],"accepted":{"date-parts":[[2015,7,30]]},"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2016,3]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>In August 1984, an outbreak of Salmonella at Stanley Royd Psychiatric Hospital in Yorkshire led to the deaths of 19 elderly residents. It was an incident that attracted a good deal of comment in both the local and national press, and one that had enduring relevance for ideas about psychiatric care, food handling and catering provisions, hospital management and the official inspection of medical institutions. This article examines the impact that the 1984 outbreak had on official and popular perceptions of these issues. As well as bringing to public attention the fact that large numbers of vulnerable elderly patients were long-term residents in psychiatric hospitals, the Salmonella outbreak highlighted the inadequacies of Victorian hospital buildings in modern healthcare. Throughout the press reports and official investigations examined here, the provenance of Stanley Royd was repeatedly emphasised; its Victorian fabric persistently interfered with cleaning regimes, cold storage facilities and the conveyance of food to patients. Within institutions like Stanley Royd, \u2018new\u2019 and \u2018old\u2019 risks came together\u2014the microscopic bacterium and the crumbling nineteenth-century building\u2014to create a strong critique of existing psychiatric care. The episode also highlighted broader problems within the NHS, such as systems of management and the status of psychogeriatrics as a specialism.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1136\/medhum-2015-010671","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2015,8,31]],"date-time":"2015-08-31T22:09:17Z","timestamp":1441058957000},"page":"11-16","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1136\/crossmarkpolicy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["In the shadow of the asylum: the Stanley Royd Salmonella outbreak of 1984"],"prefix":"10.1136","volume":"42","author":[{"given":"Jennifer","family":"Wallis","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"239","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2015,8,31]]},"reference":[{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.1","unstructured":"Lang T . Going public: food campaigns during the 1980s and early 1990s. In: Smith DF, ed . Nutrition in Britain: science, scientists and politics in the twentieth century. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2013:238\u201360."},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"HC Deb 21 January 1986 vol. 90 cols 190\u2013202.","DOI":"10.1515\/arca.1986.21.1-3.190"},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.3","unstructured":"Great Britain Committee of Inquiry into an Outbreak of Food Poisoning at Stanley Royd Hospital. The Report of the Committee of Inquiry into an Outbreak of Food Poisoning at Stanley Royd Hospital. London: HMSO, 1986:61."},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"HL Deb 21 January 1986 vol. 470 cols 134\u201343.","DOI":"10.3109\/13682828609018550"},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.5","unstructured":"HC Deb 9 June 1986 vol. 99 cols 98\u2013131."},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.6","unstructured":"Petts J , Horlick-Jones T , Murdock G . Social amplification of risk: the media and the public. Sudbury: HSE Books, 2001."},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Freudenburg WR . Institutional failure and the organizational amplification of risks: the need for a closer look. In: Pidgeon N , Kasperson RE , Slovic P, eds . The social amplification of risk. Cambridge: CUP, 2003:102\u201320.","DOI":"10.1017\/CBO9780511550461.005"},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.8","unstructured":"Walters L . \u2018Tight lips\u2019 over food poisoning. Wakefield Express 14 September 1984."},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.9","unstructured":"Mitchell S . Meat that came out of the cold. Yorkshire Post 11 September 1984."},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.10","unstructured":"Anon. Press requests to see kitchen refused. Wakefield Express 14 September 1984."},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"HC Deb 15 April 1986 vol. 95 cols 795\u2013825.","DOI":"10.5594\/J03276"},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.12","unstructured":"Connett D . Scandal of the 97 dirty hospitals. The Sunday Times 22 September 1985."},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.13","unstructured":"Pennington H . Recent experiences in food poisoning: science and policy, science and the media. In: Smith DF , Phillips J, eds . Food, science, policy and Regulation in the Twentieth Century: International and Comparative Perspectives. London: Routledge, 2000:229."},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.14","unstructured":"Report of the Committee of Inquiry:8\u20139."},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.15","unstructured":"Report of the Committee of Inquiry:64."},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.16","unstructured":"Report of the Committee of Inquiry:63, 70."},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.17","unstructured":"Report of the Committee of Inquiry:106."},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.18","unstructured":"Griffiths R . NHS Management Inquiry. London: HMSO, 1983. http:\/\/www.sochealth.co.uk\/national-health-service\/griffiths-report-october-1983\/ (accessed 19 May 2015)."},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.19","unstructured":"Berridge V , Christie DA , Tansey EM, eds . Public health in the 1980s and 1990s, decline and rise? The transcript of a Witness Seminar held by the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL, London, on 12th October 2004. London: Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL, 2006:24."},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.20","unstructured":"Fowler N . Ministers Decide. A Personal Memoir of the Thatcher Years. London: Chapmans, 1991:195."},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.21","unstructured":"Report of the Committee of Inquiry:35, 41."},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.22","unstructured":"Report of the Committee of Inquiry:76."},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.23","unstructured":"Report of the Committee of Inquiry:15."},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.24","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1258\/jrsm.2012.120008"},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"427","DOI":"10.1002\/gps.1298","article-title":"The clinical psychiatry of late life in Britain from 1950 to 1970: an overview","volume":"20","author":"Hilton","year":"2005","journal-title":"Int J Geriatr Psychiatry"},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"312","DOI":"10.1177\/0957154X07087761","article-title":"The provision of mental health services in England for people over 65 years of age, 1970\u201378","volume":"19","author":"Hilton","year":"2008","journal-title":"Hist Psychiatry"},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.27","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1136\/bmj.2.5318.1491"},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.28","unstructured":"Pitt B . Psychogeriatrics: an introduction to the psychiatry of old age. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone, 1974:155."},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.29","unstructured":"Nally M . Staff blame cuts for hospital toll. The Observer 9 September 1984."},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.30","unstructured":"Report of the Committee of Inquiry:48."},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.31","unstructured":"Anon. Demand for public probe into hospital epidemic. Wakefield Express 7 September 1984."},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.32","unstructured":"Anon. Union inquiry into Stanley Royd outbreak hits hard. Hemsworth and South Elmsall Express 25 October 1984."},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.33","unstructured":"Report of the Committee of Inquiry:19."},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.34","unstructured":"Robb B . Sans everything: a case to answer. 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(1986)."},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.42","unstructured":"Berridge et al, Public health:9."},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.43","unstructured":"West Yorkshire Archive Service, Wakefield. Stanley Royd Hospital. C85\/1\/13\/3 Medical Director's journal 1874\u20131881: Annual meeting, 29 January 1880."},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.44","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Hardy A . Salmonella infections, networks of knowledge, and public health in Britain, 1880\u20131975. Oxford: OUP, 2015:7.","DOI":"10.1093\/acprof:oso\/9780198704973.001.0001"},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.45","unstructured":"HC Deb 13 April 1988 vol. 131 cols 271\u201389."},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.46","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Pennington H . When food kills: BSE, E. Coli, and disaster science. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003:54.","DOI":"10.1093\/oso\/9780198525172.001.0001"},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.47","unstructured":"Parkin M . Poisoning at hospital \u2018was caused by poultry\u2019. The Guardian 27 February 1985."},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.48","unstructured":"Report of the Committee of Inquiry:60\u201361."},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.49","unstructured":"Food Poisoning at Stanley Royd Hospital. ITN 7 September 1984. http:\/\/jiscmediahub.ac.uk\/record\/display\/024-JISC_127513_01 (accessed 5 Oct 2014)."},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.50","unstructured":"Anon. Salmonella-hit hospital to re-open. Yorkshire Post 2 October 1984."},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.51","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1136\/bmj.298.6681.1161"},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.52","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1136\/bmj.292.6521.644"},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.53","unstructured":"Anon. Salmonella hospital: five more taken ill. Yorkshire Post 13 September 1984."},{"key":"2025092411412753000_42.1.11.54","unstructured":"Anon. Hospital food poison puzzle. 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