In 1997 Papworth Hospital reviewed an accumulation of several thousand patient case files dating mainly from the 1950s and 1960s but including some that dated from as early as 1922. Files of this nature are not usually considered for wholesale preservation, but in this case the collection was seen to document patient healthcare during the earliest period of the NHS and over a period of important developments at Papworth, particularly in the fields of cardiology and thoracic surgery. This prompted the Hospital to deposit the records with the Archives Service in order to enable a more careful appraisal to be made of their research value in line with its responsibilities under the Department of Health circular HSC1999/053 For the record and Cambridgeshire Archives' role as the authorised place of deposit for records of NHS hospitals within Cambridgeshire under the Public Records Act.
Evaluation carried out as part of the Archives Project has concluded that these files represent an important resource for both medical and historical research and they have accordingly been sorted and packaged for permanent preservation. Due to the medical content of these records, they are subject to extended closure and none is currently open to general public inspection. Privileged access may be given only by permission of the Hospital. Please contact us first if you wish to access them.
The Archives Project continues to work with the Hospital to locate records that track the Hospital’s wider development and shed light on the administrative and technical aspects of the institution, thus placing the existing records in greater context. As with the whole of the Project, this will be greatly enhanced by the assistance that current and past administrative staff and medical practitioners at Papworth can give. Please contact us if you think you can help us with this.