Voluntary Sanctions

Voluntary admission papers show patient name, number and date of admission, which is often a day or two before or after the date the form or letter was signed. The number and date of admission stop being recorded from 1941. Early voluntary admission papers, 1866-1870 are in the form of a letter from one of the Commissioners of the General Board of Lunacy for Scotland to the Medical Superintendent of Crichton Royal Institution, giving consent for the admission of a voluntary patient. From 1871 printed sanction forms appear and are completed and signed by the Commissioners. Eight admission forms, 1877-1879, have an additional form, 'Statement for Voluntary Patients', attached, which has sixteen questions completed by the applicant or their representative, giving details as to their background and illness. From 1917 accompanying manuscript and typed letters signed by the applicant begin to appear as attachments to many of the sanction forms, requesting admission as a voluntary boarder, and often giving the applicant's home address. In 1922 a printed form signed by the applicant starts to replace the letters as an attachment to the sanction form and gives details of their home address. The first rate-aided voluntary sanction form appears in January 1931 (although the first rate-aided voluntary patient was admitted in 1930) and comprises the printed sanction form and an additional printed form with the applicant's name, address, the signature and details of a medical practitioner recommending the applicant receives treatment, and details of the Local Authority admitting liability for the maintenance of the applicant. There are gaps in dates and many earlier papers have not survived. Arranged chronologically by date of admission. It should be noted that some applications dated in late December may have an admission date of January the following year.

1866-1949

3 linear metres

An alternative admission procedure to certification was introduced with the passing of the Act to make further Provision respecting Lunacy in Scotland, 1862, which allowed patients to be admitted for treatment voluntarily. Patients admitted on a voluntary basis retained their legal rights and could discharge themselves by giving three days written notice. Many patients came voluntarily for treatment prior to the passing of the 1862 Act, but still had to undergo the process of certification. The first 'official' voluntary patient was admitted to Crichton Royal Institution in 1863. Until 1930 only private fee paying patients could be admitted as voluntary patients. This changed after the passing of the Local Government Scotland Act, 1929, and the first rate-aided voluntary patient was admitted to Crichton Royal Hospital in 1930. By 1873 voluntary patients made up 38% of the total admissions to Crichton Royal Institution. In 1926, 75% of all private admissions were voluntary and by 1951 that figure had risen to 51%.

Registers of Voluntary and Informal Patients, DGH1/5/4; Case Books, DGH1/5/21

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.

Further deposits expected from NHS Dumfries and Galloway.