# Cane Hill Campaign to save Patient Records



## Reaperman (May 21, 2008)

I recently Received this Via Email regarding the paperwork at Cane Hill:



> CAMPAIGN TO STOP CANE HILL PATIENT RECORDS BEING LOST FOR ALL TIME - PLEASE FORWARD TO ALL THOSE WHO MAY BE INTERESTED...
> 
> As you are aware, the former mental asylum Cane Hill is being redeveloped and the demolition process will start on the 2nd June. As a writer working on a novel set at Cane Hill and the great grand daughter of one of it's residents (my great grandmother spent 11 years there before dying in the hospital) I take a keen interest in the site. During my research on-line I discovered photographs featuring patient records are still on site. On my visit to the hospital grounds last week, I was told by security guards that many patient records are still lying about the hospital - "no longer in the administration block, but spread about by trespassers." One security guard told me casually that he had read patient records of a sex offender who had been at the unit that was only closed in February this year "all the notes made on him since he was nine" he said.
> 
> ...


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## krela (May 21, 2008)

I wonder if he realises that concern #2 contradicts concern #1?

It is illegal to divulge medical notes to ANYONE except the patient themselves without prior permission from the said patient. Including family, whether the patient is dead or alive.

IMO they SHOULD be incinerated asap.


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## Reaperman (May 21, 2008)

krela said:


> I wonder if he realises that concern #2 contradicts concern #1?
> 
> It is illegal to divulge medical notes to ANYONE except the patient themselves without prior permission from the said patient. Including family, whether the patient is dead or alive.
> 
> IMO they SHOULD be incinerated asap.



I think 100 Years After a patients death the files are made available for study. Based on this I think that records of anyone who died in the first 20 years of the hospitals operation could theoretically be made public.


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## krela (May 21, 2008)

True, but given they're spread liberally about the site do you think it's viable to go through each page my page trying to decipher a date?


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## Reaperman (May 21, 2008)

krela said:


> True, but given they're spread liberally about the site do you think it's viable to go through each page my page trying to decipher a date?



It would certainly be a nearly impossible task, I'm personally not convinced its a viable project. But I thought that it was important to pass the message on. That way if people feel strongly about the issue they at least have the opportunity to do something about it.


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## krela (May 21, 2008)

Yep true, If he wants to go through finding all files from pre-1908 good luck to him 

Technically he wouldn't be allowed to in case he saw the ones post 1908 though :icon_evil


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## dweeb (May 21, 2008)

There is nothing of that age left anyway, or very very little. Most is from the 60's and 70's really. 

That E-mail is just ridiculous if you ask me...


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## Speed (May 21, 2008)

I think the fact that these masses of records dont attulay exist is more of an issue!

Sure theres a few death certificates and a few reports on verious things scattered about but even then they are way beyond salvage! i mean look at the place! Its not like like theres rooms full of records or even a filing cabinate full like alot of hospitals!


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## Bryant (May 21, 2008)

It really is gross negligence by the NHS to simply leave highly sensitive materials for all eyes to see. Even though it's far from EP's juisdiction to collect it all up it's worth giving them a go - try Simon Powell, I believe he's above Philipa Bloomfield over there.

Interesting to have a date for demolition - my last exam is then as well!


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## Simon (May 21, 2008)

There were rooms full of records in the Administration Block. However, these pictures were taken in 2002, so I don't know if there's anything still there. (And I suspect these rooms are now buried under rubble as they were in the collapsed eastern wing of the building)













From memory, all this documentation dated from the 1960s and 1970s.

I wouldn't trust English Partnership's statement on the subject either. For example, they claimed all the patients' artwork had been removed; subsequent pictures taken by urban explorers showed it still all in-situ.

All the best,
Simon


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## lilli (May 21, 2008)

A campaign to save them at this late stage is I think fruitless. Even if they are _saveable_ or indeed of any note.

I was told by an EP representative at the first CH consultation that anything of historical value would be turned over to the archive centre, who would then sort through it. 

The Surrey Archive centre that looks after the records of Brookwood consider themselves to have a considerable record of the former asylum ... total records kept?? 10% of what was there when the hospital closed And the stacks of files that were in the Visitors Shelter at West Park were left there after the archive centre had sifted through what it wanted to take!!

What a family tree genealogist or indeed explorers consider to be interesting and rumagable can be a lot different to what an archive centre wants to keep for future generations!


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## digitalxspace (May 21, 2008)

Simon said:


> There were rooms full of records in the Administration Block. However, these pictures were taken in 2002, so I don't know if there's anything still there. (And I suspect these rooms are now buried under rubble as they were in the collapsed eastern wing of the building)
> 
> 
> 
> ...



From what i was told these records you mention were in fact staff records and not patient records.


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## BrickMan (May 22, 2008)

well I think its a touchy subject, although i think a salvage campaign is pretty fruitless at this stage, esp with EP on teh case (IME they are fairly ruthless), and with intrusive works to start in under 2weeks, anything that was of use will go pretty quick.

actual patient records would be out on the wards I would have thought, least every now and then they'll be a ward cupboard with stuff left behind.

recently at deva we came across around 4-5 foolscap box's full of patient records, or more presicesly (spl i know) records of suscpicous deaths and enquires, right up until 2006, it was a bit odd reading thru them, especially since I remember one of the patients hanging themselves in local woods to where I live (150miles+ and four counties away from the hospital) just 3yrs ago  was very odd.

it almost compares with the recent MASS data loss's of the dvla and inland revenues blunders, they lost millions in one package, the NHS has lost a few 10thousand over 30-40yrs, so its actually not as bad as it could be


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## krela (May 22, 2008)

The recent agency losses contained very little personal data other than names/addresses etc.

That's slightly different to mental health and medical records which are deeply personal!


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## BrickMan (May 23, 2008)

yes didn't realise


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## Potter (May 28, 2008)

Needs saving. Full stop.


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## lilli (May 28, 2008)

Potter said:


> Needs saving. Full stop.



What the paper inside or the buildings?


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