VPRS 17851 Discharge Register of Patients

Full description

This series comprises of volumes detailing male and female patient discharges from Beechworth Asylum 1869-1905; Hospital for the Insane 1905-1934; Mental Hospital 1934-1967 and Mayday Hills Mental Hospital 1967-1978 (VA 2842)

Within twenty-four hours after the discharge, removal or escape of any patient the clerk of the asylum was to make and sign an entry to record this occurrence in the Discharge Register also known as the Register of Discharges, Removals and Deaths. This was required under the provisions of section 23 of the Lunacy Statute 1867. Subsequent legislation included similar provisions. An entry was also to be made in the Register of Patients and a written notice was to be sent to the Chief Secretary.

The format of the Discharge Register was specified in the seventeenth schedule of the 1867 Act and in schedules to subsequent legislation. Details recorded included date of death, discharge or removal, date of last admission, number in Register of Patients, name at length, name of hospital to which patient removed (if applicable), condition on discharge, cause of death (if applicable) and age at death.