NHS Grampian Archives

About

NHS Grampian Archives hold the historic records of more than 100 hospitals & health organisations from across Grampian.
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Story

NHS Grampian Archives hold the historic records of more than 100 hospitals and health organisations from across the Grampian region. These cover the period from 1739, when the Infirmary at Aberdeen was founded, to the late 20th century. NHS Grampian possesses the most complete archival records for an NHS body and its predecessors, covering one of the longest time spans that can be found in the British Isles, excepting only Dublin, London and York.

Most of the records from the 18th and 19th centuries are of hospitals: general and specialist hospitals, cottage hospitals and asylums. These collections have information on the administrative and financial affairs of the hospitals and on individuals who were patients, staff or managers.

There is also information on members of the general public who contributed to local hospitals in the time before the National Health Service by means of annual subscriptions, donations or legacies. As some of the capital of the larger hospitals was tied up in land, estate papers are also to be found among some hospital records. In addition, there are records from three local poorhouses which in 1948 became hospitals in the newly-formed NHS.

Material from the 20th century includes both hospital collections and the records of a range of local health organisation. Amongst the latter are the minutes of the local National Insurance Committees set up under the 1911 National Health Insurance Act and the records of the various NHS administrative bodies, i.e. the North Eastern Regional Hospital Board (1948-1974) and its constituent Boards of Management, local Executive Councils and, from 1974, Grampian Health Board, now NHS Grampian. Also contained in the archives are records of local authority health departments which, prior to 1974, had responsibility for a range of healthcare services including prevention of epidemics, mother and child welfare, and school medical services.

Mission

Caring - Listening - Improving