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SOURCES FOR THE HISTORY OF Where to find information in Oxford Where to find information in Oxford Oxfordshire Health Archives NHS hospitals and administrative bodies Oxfordshire Record Office
Centre for Oxfordshire Studies Books, pamphlets, newspapers, photographs, oral history Bodleian Library Oxfordshire Hospitals now in the NHS: Oxfordshire Health Archives NHS administrative bodies: 1948-1974 Local groups of hospitals run by Hospital Management Committees under Regional Boards Ask Oxfordshire Health Archives. Bear in mind that policy decisions for individual hospitals will be found in records at this level. Other subjects: Try to find out who was responsible for the type of care or function in question at the time and in the place with which the research is concerned. For example: Public Health was a County Council responsibility until 1974 (Oxfordshire Archives), and then passed to the NHS. Littlemore Hospital was run by the County Council until 1948 (administrative records split between Oxfordshire Archives and Oxfordshire Health Archives), but patient records were always in the hospital (Oxfordshire Health Archives). Bourton on the Water is in Gloucestershire, but was run by the NHS for part of its history. The hospital records are in the Gloucestershire Record Office, but some administrative decisions will be recorded in records held at Oxfordshire Health Archives. Records relating to emergencies and epidemics, like the three nineteenth century epidemcs of cholera in Oxford, may turn up anywhere. Charity records may be in Oxfordshire Record Office or the Department of Western Manuscripts at the Bodleian Library. Notices and pamphlets might be at the Centre for Oxfordshire Studies, the Bodleian Library or Oxfordshire Record Office. The Record Office will also have records of the reactions of parish and county authorities. Oxfordshire Health Archives happens to have a collection relating to one cholera epidemic because one of the Radcliffe Infirmary doctors was involved. Think around the places affected by an emergency or the authorities needing to take action, and look for their records. Don't forget local newspapers. War hospitals Possible problems to bear in mind when planning research Remember that the nearer your research approaches the present date, the less material is likely to be available to you. Before and outside the NHS NHS Legal restrictions Before and outside the NHS Private hospitals have no legal obligations to retain anything beyond their own needs and any general record keeping legislation. Survival of records of hospitals which closed before 1948 or did not join the NHS is very poor. Before the late 19th century whole sections of the population are unrepresented in hospital records. The Radcliffe Infirmary, for example, was a charity for the poor and bound by rules excluding such cases as pregnancy, infectious diseases or inoperable cancers. Gaps were often filled by charities like dispensaries or lying in hospitals, the records of which seldom survive. The poor depended heavily on nursing at home; evidence of this will only survive in oral or anecdotal sources. NHS Records of hospitals survive better than records of administrative bodies, general practice or health care in the community. Oxfordshire Health Archives does not hold everything; sometimes we may have to direct you to medical records officers or other NHS departments. Please remember that if your research is purely historical you may have to wait a long time for a response. Oxfordshire Health Archives is the only local NHS organization with provision for historical research in its job specification. Oxfordshire Health Archives is only open 1½ days a week, so large scale research can be slow for visitors. Legal restrictions Case records of patients (and by extension also other records containing patient medical information) are closed for 100 years by Lord Chancellor's Statutory Instrument under the Public Records Act. Exceptions can be made, but usually only for medical research and after a lengthy application procedure with no guarantees. There is no absolute right to see any material under 30 years old unless it has always been in the public domain. The Data Protection Act 1998 places severe restrictions on the use of data relating to living persons, particularly any use which is not that for which the record was created. This Act is not yet fully tested and case law will have an effect upon it. Hospital Records Database Public Record Office Access to Archives (A2A) Gloucestershire Record Office Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine,
including Archives and Manuscripts Wellcome Trust Medical Photographic Library UK Centre for the History of Nursing Archon National Cataloguing Unit for the Archives of Comtemporary Scientists |
