VPRS 14845 Agency Files: Multiple Number

Full description

This series consists of files created by the Hospitals and Charities Commission and its successor, the Hospitals Division of the Health Commission. The files document the Commission's responsibilities relating to the health institutions and benevolent societies that were required to register with it under the Hospitals and Charities Act. Health institutions include bodies such as public hospitals, geriatric centres/aged homes/nursing homes, children's homes, senior citizen's clubs, nursing schools/bush nursing centres, pre school centres/kindergartens and ambulance services. Benevolent societies include bodies such as Church/secular relief, philanthropic and other organisations.

Specifically, the Commission was responsible for the registration of all these bodies, the determination of those to be subsidised through its administration of the Hospitals and Charities Fund, the administration and financial management of subsidised health institutions and benevolent societies and the inspection of health institutions that were not subsidised.

This series excludes files relating to private hospitals which are documented in a separate series (VPRS 14844). Files relating to the development of policy matters for all health institutions and benevolent societies are also documented in a different series (VPRS 14846).

The contents of many files predate the establishment of this series. The main reason for this is that any file relating to an health institution or benevolent society registered with the Commission in 1954 was originally part of another agency filing series (VPRS 14844). All of the health institution/benevolent society files in VPRS 14844 were progressively removed from 1955 onwards leaving it to eventually hold files relating exclusively to private hospitals.

Despite this the contents of some files may extend as far back as 1923. This is because the Commission had inherited the files in VPRS 14844 in turn from the predecessor Hospital and Charities Board. From an examination of the contents of such files, it is unclear as to the form of the record keeping systems managed by the former Board.

It is believed that this series was discontinued in 1986 but this is subject to further investigation.