Male patients' case books, alphabetical series - Enfield Receiving House (GRS/14232)

This series comprises fifteen volumes of male case notes bound into volumes for Enfield Receiving House. Sporadically, female case files have inadvertently been interfiled in the volumes.

Information includes name, age, religious beliefs, place of residence, birth, occupation, medical conditions, habits of life, whether the patient is suicidal/on trial leave, and death or discharge dates.

Each case consists of an intake page, a page about the patient's medical situation and one or more pages of interviews between patients and medical staff and treatment notes. Most of these pages have medical notes, patients' letters or social workers' reports attached to them.

Although the cases all end in 1962, some books contain correspondence of a later date, mostly from patients or third parties requesting information about the patients' stay at Enfield.

There are also a number of 'out-cards' in the books, which were maintained to keep track of the movement of case notes. These cards record registration number, name, date, to (where) and remarks. When the case notes were returned to the volumes the relevant card was removed and reused. Case notes that were not returned may have been incorporated into later patient files.

Most books in this series contain cases from between 1948 and 1962. One book, however, with surnames Q - R covers cases from 1923 to 1950, which suggests missing case notes, or case notes which have been transferred to another institution.

There are no recorded patients whose surname starts with the letter 'X'.

In 1963, the year after case notes ceased to be filed in these volumes, Enfield Receiving House became Enfield Hospital, which suggests a new, as yet unknown, method of recording patient case notes.