NRS-23557 | Clinical files - male [Gladesville Hospital]

Full description

This series consists of discharged male patient's clinical files from Gladesville Mental Hospital. Gladesville Hospital offered psychiatric care to patients under the Lunacy Act, 1898 (Act No.45, 1898) as amended by the Lunacy Amendment Act, 1934 (Act No.39, 1934); and subsequently under the Mental Health Act, 1958 (Act No.45, 1958) and later legislation.

The outside cover of the file provides a brief overview of the patient. It notes name, sex, admission register number, clinical file number, date of admission, date of discharge, date of previous admissions, mental disease, mental condition, co-existent physical affection (if any), special treatment (if any), mental condition on discharge, physical condition on discharge, special circumstances of discharge (if any), cause of death. Not all these headings have been filled in.

The file itself will typically contain a record of progress, examination of mental condition, examination of physical condition, and a personal history. It may also contain a ward clinical card, records of medical treatments received, report on the condition of patient on admission, and letters of recommendation. At times, there is also more recent correspondence well after the patient's discharge and/or death.

Notes on the patient's behaviours and condition while in hospital are made at irregular intervals on their record of progress sheet. Starting from date of admission, the most common interval between entries is one month. Entries are made more frequently if a patient was particularly violent, seriously ill, or approaching death. The final entry may note whether the patient was discharged, transferred to another hospital, or died.

If a patient was re-admitted, their earlier clinical files are often enclosed with the latest file. Frequently, a re-admission form or placeholder card containing only basic information exists. This is indicated in the item title as being 'cover page only'. These cards/forms were presumably used to indicate that a file which was once in that location has been moved into a later file upon re-admission at a future date or that the file was requested by a doctor or another hospital where the patient was being treated.

The earlier practice was to keep medical case books (NRS-5031) of patient case history. This only changed to a file system around 1910/1911 or so. Therefore earlier dated files probably relate to patients still in the hospital at the time their patient case history moved from the medical case books to files. For females this appears to have occurred about 1911 (NRS-5031, [4/8197]) and for males about 1910 (NRS-5031, [4/8196B]).

The files mainly cover the period 1872 to 1963, however some files contain later correspondence which is reflected in the series date range. The files are arranged by file number and each file usually notes the patient's admission/discharge number. Some file numbers end with 'M' denoting Male.