Spotlight On… (10): Project to re-order LHSA’s twentieth-century case notes

LHSA holds the second-largest collection of medical case notes in the UK, comprising one million folder-based patient records that date back to the 1900s. These consist of over 100 discrete collections from some of the great general and specialist practitioners in the Lothian area, including Harold Stiles, John Fraser, and Norman Dott.

Inside ear and throat department box.

During a move of the case note collections, a shelving collapse occurred in November 2006. Although the overall damage was minimal, this incident resulted in the disorganisation of 71 of the collections. The time-consuming task of restoring order was carried out by LHSA Archive Assistant Stephen Willis. Taking more than a year and a half to complete, he re-ordered over 208,000 case notes. At the same time, additional information was extracted, for example, regarding medical specialty, date range, and mentioned wards.

Re-ordering of the case note collections.

Occasionally, miscellaneous items were found among the case notes. Some of the more unusual items have included a hair comb, a pair of nail scissors, and the colour supplement from a 1959 edition of Woman magazine!  

This project not only improved access for enquirers, but also made the case notes ready for potential future conservation or digitisation work.  

Since the project's completion, attention shifted to the rest of the case notes, as many of these had not been reviewed before. They were being systematically checked, and similar information was recorded.