Case note conclusion

This week there is an update on the long running task to re-order and produce finding aids for all of LHSA’s 1 million plus patient case notes. The good news is that the work, which started in 2007, has now been completed. 

Details of all of the case note collections have been described and entered into a spreadsheet including hospital, consultant, ward, sequence, date range, number of case notes and links with other collections. An identification card has also been written up and placed at the start of each collection on the shelves. The case note collection data has been entered into an Access database finding aid, with additional information such as locations of relevant index card finding aids and cross-referring them to descriptions on the Finding the Right Clinical Notes webpage http://www.clinicalnotes.ac.uk/. Shown is a collection entry in the form view on the database, which has images of the first and last case notes of collections added so that Archive staff looking for a case note collection in future could identify it visually on the shelf.

Case note database entry

The spreadsheet and database together are a great resource of information which will help LHSA staff to respond more quickly and successfully to enquiries (for which it has already been put into use), and to plan future project funding bids for cataloguing and conservation. Two images below give examples of some of the variety that can be found in the case note collections: a medical drawing of tuberculosis in an elbow joint from Alexander Miles’ collection, 1919, and a mechanically readable patient card from the Western General Hospital, 1970.

Drawing from Alexander Miles case note collection, 1919

Mechanically readable card, WGH collection, 1970