Old Medical Records
During the last few months we have been discussing the problem of the several thousand old case notes from the hospital that are currently stored in the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Rhyl. These notes were sent there when the hospital, closed and refer to people who lived in the old local authority area Clwyd which is now Denbighshire, Flintshire and Wrexham. Case notes from the old Gwynedd authority, now Conwy, Gwynedd and Anglesey were sent to Bangor and unfortunately they, due to s
torage problems, decided to destroy the vast majority keeping only 1 in 10 which are now stored in the County archives in Caernarfon.
Various means of dealing with the Case notes in the Alex have been discussed and it has been decided that we will try to retain as much as possible. The County archives in Ruthin have been very helpful and have agreed that if we can reduce the bulk sufficiently they will find room to store all of the notes. A small number of ex staff members have agreed to go through the notes and take out all of the extraneous material leaving some personal details and some information about their illness. Vast amounts of confidential information will be destroyed but it is felt that much of this would not be of interest in the future and it is preferable to keep what we fee
l is important, as the alternative would be to do the same as Gwynedd.
In addition to thinning the files we will also keep 1 in 10 intact, choosing those that are of particular interest because of the nature of the illness and/or the treatment given, which will be of interest to future researchers.
You may ask why it is important to keep these records. Our view is that they will one day be of value to historians and medical researchers as they record not only mental health issues but also reflect the social situation and attitudes of the times. There are also many people who are interested in their family history, we have several enquiries about relatives who have been in-patients at the hospital. If anyone wishes to find out about their relatives, anything under 100 years old is not generally available, but if you contact medical records in the Ablett unit and can confirm your relationship with the person, that you are entitled to the information and will be using it for a legitimate reason, you can gain access to these notes.
The work of sorting out the case notes is likely to be quite a lengthy process and we have agreed to meet every Thursday at the Alex until the job is done. If any ex staff member is willing or able to help we would be very grateful, it is important that you understand the importance of confidentiality, so if you have some time and can make it on a Thursday please let us know through this site.