Ward 5 Association

The Ward 5 Association was formed by a group of patients who were subjected to Narcosis, a brutal and abusive psychiatric treatment that was given to mentally ill patients between1964 and 1973 on Ward 5 at The Royal Waterloo Hospital, a National Health Service hospital in London. The Ward 5 Association tells the story of patients’ suffering at the hands of a group of psychiatrists and of the years of NHS evasion of responsibility since the unit was closed in 1973.

The two NHS hospitals at the heart of the Narcosis Room scandal are the Royal Waterloo Hospital, a little known general hospital which was closed in 1976 and the mighty St Thomas’ Hospital which is situated about ten minutes walk away from the Royal Waterloo and stands on the South Bank of the River Thames opposite the Houses of Parliament. 

Although the Narcosis Room at The Royal Waterloo Hospital is the best documented Narcosis unit, the treatment was given in other hospitals outside London. Like The Royal Waterloo, all of these other units have now closed and information about what went on in them has proved difficult to obtain. However, the stories of patients who were treated in those hospitals are now surfacing. More is known about the psychiatrists who instigated this treatment in psychiatric hospitals where nursing standards were generally lower and patients were in greater danger from adverse effects. Although we know that five people died during Narcosis at the Royal Waterloo the number of fatalities and the damage done to patients at other units is unknown and the Ward 5 Association is gathering evidence about these hospitals.