NRS-20944 | Transcript [Royal Commission into the former Chelmsford Private Hospital and Mental Health Services in New South Wales]

Full description

This series comprises the transcript from the public hearings of the Royal Commission into the former Chelmsford Private Hospital and Mental Health Services in New South Wales. The first day of the proceedings was on 4 October 1988 and the Commission heard evidence for another 288 days, closing on 10 July 1990. During this time, 297 witnesses gave evidence and 522 exhibits were presented. (1)

The transcript was entered into the Chelmsford Hospital Royal Commission Transcript Enquiry System, a free-text database managed by the STATUS software. The database stored each day of the proceedings by article. The transcript was printed out from the database and is held in hard copy.

The transcript consisted of 18,821 pages of which only 107 pages were marked confidential and were not published. (2) These confidential transcripts are held in NRS 21821 in camera transcript. The in camera transcripts were printed on green paper and were kept separate from the main transcript.

An edited copy of the transcript was made available for public access. The names and addresses of people who were subject to non publication orders were removed. The printed version of edited transcript from the STATUS database was held in paper. In 2018 the STATUS database was migrated into the Digital State Archive. During the migration process the edited transcript was checked and further editing took place to remove non publication of former patient and family names. Some patient names were given non publication orders at the beginning of proceedings by the Commissioner which was either lifted by the Commissioner or by the former patient or family member when testifying during the hearings. These names were not edited from the transcript when they appeared.




Endnotes
1. Report of the Royal Commission into Deep Sleep Therapy, Vol. 1: Introduction, 1990, p.13.
2. Ibid., p.17.