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I have posted this previously but will do so again as it may help anyone who wishes to access asylum records of an ancestor. It may not apply to all areas of the UK of course and will not benefit Allan living in Australia as he does.
Assuming that you are able to visit the area in question then access should be fairly easy despite the fact that the medical records are normally covered by a 100 year secrecy rule.
Firstly you will have to find out where the hospital records are kept…possibly the local records office.
Obtain the necessary birth certificates to prove your relationship to the patient.
Send a letter to the local NHS office telling them in detail what you want to look at and enclose the certificates [not photocopies].
They should issue you with a letter addressed to the records office granting you access.
Go along to the records office and in you go. You will be able to look at anything relating to your relative and take notes of course. You may even be lucky and see a photograph. They will cover up anybody else’s records on adjacent pages etc.
This is the procedure that I had to follow to view Barming Heath records held in Maidstone and hopefully it is standard practice throughout the NHS. My great grandfather spent the last 32 years of his life in there and was never spoken about again by his family nor was he visited. I needed to bring him back to life and give him a decent ending by pointing out to the rest of my family what we had done to one of our forebears.
Be wary though as it is not for the faint hearted and the reading can be pretty harrowing particularly as it is a close relative and it will detail examinations carried out and the treatment given. Not a pretty sight I can assure you.
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Madmeg and Colin, many thanks.
I will keep the thread going and nudge it up from time to time
Colin you are spot on with your information as I was told the same thing in the email I received from the Lancashire Records Office.
I suppose that part of my curiosity was why my Aunt was in the hospital, but more importantly the date that she was admitted, which was very much later than I had fixed in my mind.
Regards
Allan
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For reference, here is part of the email received from LRO. it may not read correctly as I have deleted anything that could identify my Aunt, but the main gist is still there
"Register of Patients admitted under Sections 20 and 21 of the Lunacy Act 1890: 1948-1954
[NB This does not appear to be a standard Admission Register and may not include the patient if they were admitted under a different category]
General Register, 1948-1951
, Box 14*
Medical Register (Voluntary, Temporary and Certified) – Rate-Aided Patients, 1949-1953
Register of Discharges or Regrades, 1956-1960
, Box 19*
Death Register, 1964-1970
* Asterisk denotes records not yet fully open to public inspection
Records which are not marked with an asterisk are fully open to public inspection and you may gain access to them in one of the following ways:
• Visit the Lancashire Record Office in person. Details of our Opening Hours and other information to help you make the most of your visit to the Record Office are available on our website at www.archives.lancashire.gov.uk.
• Use the Record Office's Research Service. This is an in-house paid service provided by the Record Office for shorter enquiries in specific kinds of records (more details below).
• Ask an independent Record Agent to carry out research on your behalf. Record Agents offer a wider range of research than the Record Office's Research Service, and can often extend research to include records held at other archive locations. A list of Record Agents showing contact details and the kinds of research each provides is available on the Record Office's website at www.archives.lancashire.gov.uk.
The records marked with an asterisk are, as you mention in your e-mail, records which are not yet fully open to public inspection. However, the records of a specific patient can be accessible, using the Record Office's in-house Research Service, providing permission for disclosure is obtained in advance from the NHS Trust with responsibility for the records. In order to request permission for information to be released from these records, it would be necessary for you to contact the Lancashire Care NHS Trust which retains responsibility for those records of Lancaster Moor Hospital which are deposited here in the Lancashire Record Office. The contact details are as follows:
Peter Holden IHRIM
Health Records Manager
Lancashire Care Foundation Trust
Sceptre Point
Sceptre Way
Walton Summit
Preston
PR5 6AW
E-mail: [email protected]
In the case of records such as these that are not yet fully open, if and when permission has been obtained for the release of the relevant information, this information can only be provided by means of the Record Office’s Research Service, details of which are provided above. It would therefore be necessary for you to contact the Record Office again, providing a copy of the permission obtained, if you wish to request a search to be carried out in the records that are not fully open, as part of the Research Service.
We can in fact supply a copy of any relevant information found in all of the above records, both open and not yet fully open (conditional on permission being obtained in the case of the latter), as part of the Record Office’s Research Service for a fee of £30.00 sterling including postage and VAT.
If you would like to make use of this service, payment should be made in advance, by cheque or Postal Order made payable to 'Lancashire County Council' and sent to the Record Office at the following address:
Lancashire Archives
Lancashire Record Office
Bow Lane
Preston
Lancashire
PR1 2RE
It is also possible to pay by Credit Card or Debit Card, for which the following details should be provided by post or fax rather than by e-mail (pending the provision of a secure e-mail site for the Record Office):
NB The fax number is 01772 533050 when dialling from Britain.
• Card Number (16-19 digit number across centre of card)
• Card Issue Number (Switch cards only)
• Cardholder's name and initials as they appear on the card
• Expiry Date
• Start Date (if given)
• Security Code (the last three digits printed on or just beneath the card signature strip either after the full card number)
• Name of the bank or other financial institution that issued the card
• Cardholder's full postal address, including postcode
• Delivery address (if different from the above), including postcode
Please note that, although all reasonable care will be taken with this information, card details are provided at your own risk.
I am attaching a Copyright Declaration Form which you should complete and sign, and return to the Record Office at the above address, if you would like us to supply a copy of part or all of the above information.
I hope that this information is helpful to you.
Yours sincerely
David Blake
Enquiries Officer
Lancashire Archives
Lancashire Record Office
Lancashire County Council
Telephone: 01772 533042
www.archives.lancashire.gov.uk
This enquiry was dealt with by David Blake
2011/0111 DB
12 January 2011 "
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