LHSA’s case notes continue to be re-ordered and audited. The current case note audit follows on from a project for case notes affected in a shelving collapse. All those affected in the collapse have been re-ordered so attention has turned to the rest of them, many of which have not been checked for many years and contain disordered elements. The batch of case notes now receiving attention, and very near to completion, are those from the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh (RIE) Ear and Throat collection, dating 1930-1953. The surgeons practicing during these times included Mr JD Lithgow, Dr G Ewart Martin, Dr I Simson Hall and Dr JP Stewart. They include notes regarding what was then the routine practice of removing tonsils and adenoids to much more complicated cases of treating hearing loss and cancer. The case notes were housed loose inside 657 box files. As re-ordering was carried out, a handlist was produced with information about every box file, including the alphabetical sequence, the number of case notes inside and any anomalies in the sequence. Most of the notes have been kept in the original box files for now, with only those inside files which were decaying or damaged re-housed into archival boxes.
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| Case Notes in original boxes, after re-ordering |
As always, there are peculiar finds that are made when checking through such material. Some interesting finds amongst the notes have been early recommendations from a doctor that a patient should cut down smoking, a small collection of previously unknown RIE case notes from 1918-1919, and pages from the Eagle Annual 1958!
This particular collection contains approximately 140,000 case notes and now it has been (nearly!) re-ordered is more accessible and ready for future conservation work.
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