of resident patients declined, for the fourth consecutive year, to 10, 730,
representing a decrease of 499 patients, or 4. 4 per cent, since 1957.
And yet, these hospitals treated a record 19, 473 patients last year, an
increase of 2. 7 per cent over the previous year. Also attesting to the
high quality of our program is the fact that a record 4, 602 patients
were discharged last year, nearly 60 per cent having been hospitalized
for less than a year.

Both the capital and the operational budgets reflect the determina-
tion of this administration to strive for the betterment of conditions
within our mental institutions and for the improvement of the care
and treatment of persons afflicted with mental illnesses. To assure a
higher level of patient care, and to staff, equip and operate new
facilities which have been provided, I am recommending that the
budget for the Department of Mental Hygiene by increased by
$1, 004, 810 next year. In the capital program, I am making provision
for a continued orderly expansion of the physical plant of this
department. I would direct your attention, in particular, to recom-
mendations I have made to meet both the immediate and long-range
requirements for adequate hospital facilities for the mentally ill
and the mentally retarded.

In Mental Hygiene, there is evidence of a healthy growth in
activities, especially in regard to community services. It is expected
that there will be increased emphasis on both patient and community
services to the mentally ill and the mentally retarded, as well as to
special groups such as alcoholic and narcotics patients.

For the Department of Health, I am asking you to approve an
additional appropriation of $4, 256, 211 for its operations next year.
From your examination of the detailed budget, you will note that a
major portion of this increase—roughly, 80 per cent of it—has been
earmarked for the extension and improvement of medical care serv-
ice. In this broadened program, we have made provisions to relieve
hospitals caring for indigent cases, in the amount of approximately
$800, 000, by advancing the basis of the 80 per cent per diem costs
from two years to one year.

Also, we have increased the rate of payments, established fifteen
years ago, to physicians who provide services under this program.

In the public health program, too, you will note that an initial
contribution has been made toward the State's assumption of respon-
sibility for the tuberculosis patients now treated in the Baltimore
City Hospitals.

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