Board Ledgers

Volumes relate to private fee paying patients and Officer Service Patients. Information contained in these volumes includes patient name, admission number, rate of board per week, date of admission, discharge or death, name and address of Obligant, and any additional instructions. This is followed by a balance sheet showing payments made and amount owed. Each volume is arranged alphabetically by patient surname. Covering dates related to the dates recorded on ledger balance sheets.

1945-1966

7 volumes and 1 folder

At the opening of Crichton Royal Institution the various scales of rates of board on offer were, £30 to £350 for private patients and £15 to £18 for pauper patients. The rate of board was set by the Board of Trustees and Directors and was increased every few years. The person responsible for the payment of board for private patients was the Obligant or Cautioner, in most cases a relative or friend of the patient. In the case of pauper or rate-aided patients their board was paid by the local parish or, after 1929, the local authority. After Crichton Royal Hospital became part of the National Health Service in 1948 the rates of board were altered, with private patients being classified as Section 4 & 5 patients and rate-aided patients as Section 3 patients. A new class of patient, the Service Patient, was established during the First World War after an agreement was made with the War Office. Service Patients were admitted at a fixed rate of board into the Third Department of Crichton Royal Institution, with their board being paid by the Ministry of Pensions and later the Department of Health. These patients were Soldiers and Sailors who had served during the First World War and had been admitted to hospital as a result of suffering from mental and nervous disorders caused or aggravated by their period of service. This scheme was later extended to Officers, with the Ministry of Pensions paying a higher fixed rate of board for their admission into the First Department of Crichton Royal Institution. Patients continued to be admitted under this class during the interwar years and during and after the Second World War.

Enquiries for reproduction for commercial purposes should be directed to the Archivist, Dumfries and Galloway Archives and Local Studies

The papers are available at Dumfries and Galloway Archives subject to conditions of UK Data Protection Act 1998, Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and NHS Records Management Code of Practice 2012. Subject to these restrictions, this material is being digitised by the University of Glasgow as part of a Wellcome Trust funded project. Material that is digitised will be accessed freely online through the Wellcome Library catalogue.