| Description | Medical records and case notes of patients treated at St Bartholomew's Hospital, 1735-2009, comprising:
Records relating to the admission of patients to the Hospital, 1700s-1979, principally: Admission Registers for male and female patients, 1818-1971, giving names, ward, dates of admission and discharge or death, 1818-1869, and also age, diagnosis and name of physician or surgeon, 1870-1971; petitions and applications for admission of patients recommended by the Hospital Governors, local parish overseers or through the Voluntary Hospitals Emergency Bed Service, 1700s-1939; rough notes of the names of patients admitted and discharged to the Hospital wards, 1832-1865; rules and regulations for the admission of patients, 1915-1938;
Registers of Deaths, 1762-1769, 1807-1816, 1826-2009; registers of burials of patients in the Hospital burial ground, 1744-1755, 1846-1849;
Case notes of medical and surgical patients treated at St Bartholomew's Hospital, 1826-1920, comprising: case notes for male and female medical patients under Dr Peter Mere Latham, including post-mortem reports, 1826-1841; notes and correspondence relating to surgical and medical patients mostly under the care of William Lawrence, 1827-1858; case notes, cuttings, statistics and thumbnail sketches on medical and surgical topics compiled by William Piers Ormerod, 1835-1846; manuscript notes comprising detailed medical histories and post mortems relating to surgical and medical cases compiled by Edward Latham Ormerod, 1837-1848; case notes of medical and surgical patients kept by the Medical Registrar, including, where applicable, notes of post mortems, 1848-1856; case notes of gynaecological cases under physician Charles West, 1849-1861; medical and surgical patient case notes, arranged according to ward, gender or medical specialism, 1869-1920; case notes of patients receiving treatment in the Electrical Department, 1883-1897; case notes of male and female patients treated in the Skin Department, 1907-1918;
Maternity records, 1895-1984, comprising: Admission registers and case notes of maternity patients attended in their own homes under the Out-door/External Midwifery Department scheme; 1895-1960; case notes of maternity in-patients admitted to Elizabeth Ward, 1911-1924; admission registers of maternity patients admitted to Elizabeth and Martha Wards, including brief information on subsequent births, 1923-1925, 1965-1984; administrative material relating to the midwifery services provided by the Hospital, 1907-1947;
Records relating to out-patients, 1735-1976, including partial list of women out-patients, 1735; correspondence on the subjects of recommendations for reducing out-patient waiting times, 1933, Harold Gillies' plastic surgery clinic, 1938-1939, War time arrangements for re-opening the Out-Patient Department, 1939-1940; Throat Department Out-patients Registers, 1951-1957; Neurological Department Out-patients Registers, 1953-1973; Day Ward Admission Books, 1969-1971; Fracture Clinic Out-patients register, 1972-1976; Road Traffic Act Out-Patients insurance claims, 1941-1950; Daily staff out-patient attendances, 1961-1968;
Material relating to patients treated in the Casualty/Accident and Emergency Department, 1927-1987, mostly comprising of admission registers to the various sub departments including Male Surgery Door Books, 1951-1960; Female Surgery Door Books, 1952-1961; Medical and Surgical Time Books, 1960-1975; Surgical Time Books, 1974-1988; Medical Time Books, 1973-1986; Casualty patients admitted to Wards, 1953-1960; Emergency Medical Department Time Book, 1971; Resuscitation Books, registers of patients who have undergone resuscitation in the Accident and Emergency Department, 1970-1987; Minor Operations Registers, registers of patients who have undergone minor operations usually only requiring local anaesthetic, 1972-1986; 'Black Books' two manuscript volumes containing details of malingerers, compulsive hospital addicts or patients who have previously been violent, kept by and for the medical staff of the Casualty/Accident and Emergency Department, 1927-1974;
Records of civilians and service men and women injured due to enemy action and treated at the Hospital, principally during the Second World War, 1939-1951, comprising: Service Casualty Registers, 1939-1951; Air Raid Casualty Registers, 1939-1951; admission, discharge, treatment and death registers from the Bart's Unit at Cell Barnes Hospital, 1939-1945.
Registers recording brief information on patients admitted to various departments, wards or clinics, including: Special Treatment Centre patients, 1917-1973; index of Radiotherapeutic Department patients, 1925-1946; Ward Admission Books, 1939-1995, but mostly dating from the 1970s-1980s;
Register of patients who had to be put under restraint, 1903-1927;
Material, mostly correspondence, relating to the operation of the Blood Transfusion Service, 1926-1951; correspondence and statistics relating to the work of the Anaesthetics Department, 1917-1939; correspondence regarding the Ear, Nose and Throat Department, principally the provision and use hearing aids under the National Health Service, 1948-1955;
Sample volumes of Ward Drug Books, 1978-1981; sample volumes of Ward Dangerous Drug Record Books, 1977, 1981; sample volume of a Ward Dangerous Drug Record Book, 1981; sample book of Ward Death Notices, 1964-1967; samples of Ward Day and Night Report Books for Lucas Ward, Accident and Emergency Department and the Surgery Ward, 1961-1979; Certificates of Still Birth, filled out under the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953, 1969-1975;
Statistics relating to patient numbers and health care, 1789-1968, notably manuscript volume summarising the number of patients admitted, cured and discharged against those who died at St Bartholomew's Hospital between the years 1783-1847; out-patient and casualty patient numbers, 1849-1878; daily in-patient numbers, 1951-1959; weekly out-patient attendances, 1952-1959; statistical information on the number and use of beds and the ward accommodation, 1877-1957; published annual statistical reports concerning patients treated in St Bartholomew's Hospital, 1860-1980;
Orders concerning military patients and admission of tuberculosis patients to Kettlewell Convalescent Home, 1907-[1914]; note concerning Parkwood Convalescent Home, Swanley, 1926. |
| Administrative history | Official Hospital patient records after 1841 were filed under the name of the physician or surgeon in charge of the case. When the file was about four inches high, the papers were bound together in book form and an index was made for the surnames of patients and an index for diseases. This system lasted until 1921 when notes and charts of patients were filed in individual folders.
The records were retained in the Hospital's library for consultation, particularly by medical students, however developments in pathology and treatments meant that the contents of the case notes gradually became out dated. On 26 November 1941 the Medical Council - possibly influenced by space concerns and paper recycling for the War effort - proposed that patients' notes up to 1900 should be destroyed. One example per year was retained. |