VPRS 17945 Master Inpatient Index Cards (also known as Statistical Record Cards), Chief Psychiatrist

Full description

This series consists of cards maintained by a succession of Government agencies responsible for mental health over the period 1912 - 1983, the contents however date from as early as 1865. The series was created in 1912 when it replaced the system of sending "Nominal Registers", "Mental and Bodily Statements" and copies of reception papers to the Inspector General of the Insane's Office. These cards form an index of all inpatients of mental health facilities over the period 1912 - 1983. Cards were created initially for all patients in institutions on 1st April 1912.

Until the establishment of the Mental Retardation Division in 1981, the provision of care for people with intellectual disabilities and those with psychiatric illness was managed by the same government body. This card system also includes people who resided in "Mental Deficiency Training Centres", such as Janefield and Kew Cottages.

From 1963 onward the cards became more detailed and were also used for the collection of statistical data on mental health. At this time they were also known as Statistical Record Cards.

Cards were created for every inpatient admitted into psychiatric care (including voluntary boarders). Yellow cards were used for males and white cards for females. Orange cards were used for repatriation patients. The cards were created by psychiatric institutions and sent to the Head Office of the department responsible for mental health, for retention. This was the centralised way in which the location of patients, and their previous hospitalisations was monitored. A pink copy of each card was made and retained for use by the institution concerned.


Each card contains some or all of the following patient details:

- name, sex, date of birth, age, address, religion and martial status of the patient
- date of admission and type of admission and the name of the institution
- patient's nationality, country of birth year and age of arrival in Australia, length of residence here and whether naturalised
- patient's mental and physical condition, diagnosis and prognosis
- patient's occupation, profession or vocation qualifications, whether currently employed and occupational status
- next of kin details
- name and address of the person signing the request to leave
- names of the medical practitioners who certified the patient
- an indication whether this was the patient's first reception and whether were previously in other facilities
- section of the Lunacy Act under which the patient was committed
- causation of insanity
- dates of transfer, boarding out, probation, discharge, death or escape
- dates examined, and, if relevant
- cause of death.

Cards also contain annual examination notes in the form of Superintendent's Report Sheets.

The layout of the cards changed over the years. Most cards are folded with one page containing personal information about the patient, two pages containing space for movement details (if any) such as admission and discharge sheets. There are instances, however, of older single cards with print/writing on one or both sides.

As patients were transferred to new hospitals within the psychiatric care system, details of subsequent admissions, discharges and trial leave (where applicable) were noted on the index cards. This information was obtained from the hospitals via the Return of Changes forms completed daily. If it were known with certainty that an individual had previously been admitted into care and that a card already existed for that individual, a new card was not required by the Head Office. A pink copy, however, had to be prepared if the hospital concerned did not have such a card on file.

These cards have a number added, usually in the right hand corner in red pen These numbers usually have an M prefix (for example, M12345678) and were later used to create new computerised records of inpatient admissions.

The early 1960's - a new statistical system

Around 1961 the Department of Mental Health introduced a new statistical system which was designed to provide data on mental disorders in Victoria for administrative and epidemiological purposes.

The Master Inpatient Cards (also known as Statistical Record Cards) were one of the five main forms used to collect statistics, along with code cards, Superintendent report sheets, prevalence lists and return of changes lists. The Statistical Record Card gradually replaced the individual record card of current patients used prior to 1961.

Each statistical record card had a tear off portion which was used for recording information on the patient in a summarised format; these were known as code cards. The location of these cards was unknown as of 2015.

The Superintendent's Report sheets, as already mentioned, were glued inside the statistical record cards, and the Return of Changes lists were used by the Head Office of the department concerned to update the patient's movements (i.e of trial leave, escapes and boarding out). These form part of this series. Unfortunately, it appears that in some instances previous Superintendent's Report Sheets were removed when the latest report was affixed to the patient's index card. Thus in some cases a patient's history over time was lost.

Return of changes lists were created by mental hospitals on a daily basis, and provided a statement of patients' admissions, discharges and other movements. These were used by the head Office of the Department responsible for mental health to update the statistical record cards.

The final format used for gathering information such as this was the prevalence list. The prevalence list was compiled from a study of all patients under the care of the Mental Health Authority (VA 692) on the 30th of November each year. The information contained in these lists is likely to be found in a summary form in the Chief Psychiatrist's annual report (not held in PROV custody).