VPRS 18453 Admission Index Cards

Full description

This series consists of admission index cards for patients of Plenty Mental/Psychiatric Hospital (VA 5091), and North Eastern Metropolitan Psychiatric Services (NEMPS) (VA 5083). The four-sided index cards recorded details, including: patient name, year of birth (or full birth date), date of admission, type of admission (e.g. "recommended" or "voluntary" or "involuntary", etc.), dates and types of previous admissions, date of discharge or transfer to another institution, trial leave details, references to boarding out, dates of escape and return; address on admission and permanent address, marital status, occupation, religion; whether Australian born, migrant's country of birth, year of arrival in Australia, age on arrival, length of residence in Australia, whether naturalized; last school attended and standard achieved; professional or vocational qualifications, last occupation and whether still employed; name of next of kin, relation to patient, address and occupation.

Attached to the inside of most of the four-sided cards is a form M.H. 26 Report of Superintendent as to Physical and Mental Condition of Patient. Patients may have several such forms attached to their card. The older index cards include a registration number in the right hand corner, with an "F" prefix for females and an "M" prefix for males. The more recent cards include a six digit U.R. number. U.R. numbers are allocated to patients as a unique identifier across a range of systems.