Bedfordshire Archives Service Catalogue
  • Reference
    HO/NB
  • Title
    North Bedfordshire Health Authority Archive
  • Date free text
    1931 - 1982
  • Production date
    From: 1931 To: 1982
  • Admin/biog history
    Introduction The archive deposited by the North Bedfordshire Area Health Authority on 23 May 1989 comprises the arhives of the two predecessor authorities: the Bedford Group of Hospitals (1948-1974) and the Bedfordshire Area Health Authority, Northern District (1974-1982). The Setting Up of the Bedford Group Hospital Management Committee The 1948 Health Act caused the hospitals in the northern part of Bedfordshire to be organised as No 1 Group of the North West Metropolitan Region. This Region appointed a Bedford Group Hospital Management Committee under the Chairmanship of Major Simon Whitbread. The hospitals that comprised the group were as follows: Bedford County Hospital (now South Wing) (archives previous to 1948 listed under HO:B.) The Eric Stonebank archive (Z613) is very useful, especially on the rebuilding of the 1890's. Bedford: St Peter's Hospital (former workhouse, now North Wing) (archives previous to 1948 listed under PUB). Bromham House Colony (for now Bromham Hospital) (archives previous to 1948 listed under J.) Bedfordshire Sanatorium for Tuberculosis (now Park Hospital) (archives previous to 1948 listed under HO:M). Daneswood Sanatorium (archives previous to 1948 listed under HO:D). Isolation Hospital at Clapham. Isolation Hospital at Steppingley. Isolation Hospital at Biggleswade (previous archives listed under HO:BW). Smallpox Hospital at Biggleswade (previous archives listed under HO:BW). Edgbury Convalescent Home. Homewood Convalescent Home. List taken from the definitive history of Bedford Hospitals "Private Charity and the Public Purse, the Development of Bedford General Hospital: 1794-1988". The Groups records fall into three main categories, those of general committees covering the whole group; house committees, etc covering committees concerned with individual hospitals and special committees for limited duration for a specific purpose. General Committees 1948 - 1974 The records of the general committees show a structure developing in size and complexity. In 1948 the main Hospital Management Committee was set up. This committee lasted through till reorganisation in 1974 and its minutes provide the main record for the Bedford Group of Hospitals during the period. Under the Hospital Management Committee were set up in 1948 only three subordinate committees: Finance, Establishment and Nursing Advisory. To this simple committee structure were added throughout the 1950's and 1960's, six more committees including Nursing Education and Catering. The most interesting of these however was the Occupational Health Committee Pioneering work on the occupational health of staff at hospitals was inaugurated by Dr J D Harte at Bedford South Wing. His research notes and fundings have also been deposited at the Bedfordshire Record Office (see Z625/18-23). 1968 saw a major overhaul of the committee structure of the Bedford Group Hospital Management Committee with the amalgamation of two of the most important committees of the 1948 scheme: Finance and Establishment Committees to form the Finance Establishment and General Purposes Committee Special Liaison Committees were set up to co-ordinate ambulance service, geriatric work and voluntary work in hospitals. The creation of a Works and Supplies Sub Committee completed the reforms. Only two years later three more committees or sub committees were added. Significantly the chief of these was a Budgetary Control Sub Committee, as an answer to Government calls for tighter control of finance. A Medical Advisory Sub Committee and a Medical Staff Planning Committee were both set up in the same year. 1971 saw the creation of only one committee the Drugs and Dressing Committee. With the prospect of major alterations to the National Health to parallel those of Local Government firmly before them in 1972 the Members of the Bedford Group of Hospitals created five more committees dealing with problems such as geriatrics, psychiatry and General Practitioner Obstetrics. House Committees In 1948 House Committees were set up to administer individual hospitals under the overall control of the Group. Records survive for Bedford, Biggleswade and Park Hospitals (the last two amalgamated under the Biggleswade and Park Hospitals Committee in 1959). Bromham Hospital dealing with mentally defective patients has in addition to the House Committee Minutes records of a Farm Advisory Sub Committee (1956-1959) and a Nurse Education Committee (1966-1973). A House Committee for convalescent homes met from 1948-1958. Special Committees Special Committees were set up throughout the Group's history to deal with specific issues. These Committees were of limited duration and did not become established as part of the regular committee structure. In 1948 a special committee met to discuss the future use of hospitals in the area. When this was decided in 1950 the committee ceased. Another such committee was a co-ordinating committee for scanning of the population for cancer of the cervix. It met between 1967 and 1971. The Bedfordshire Joint Liaison Committee; Administration Working Party 1972-1973 prepared the way for the changes of 1974. Bedfordshire Area Health Authority: Northern District 1974-1982 On 1 April 1974, the Bedford Group of Hospitals Management Committee was replaced by the Northern District of the Bedfordshire Area Health Authority. The main unit of administration envisaged in these reforms at a local level was the District Management Team (see B Cashman op. cit. page 184). In this deposit are to be found the District Management Team's Minutes 1974-1982. Other committees represented in the archive are the District Medical Committee and Medical Staff Committee Minutes. A simpler and probably more co-ordinated structure had been created to represent what might appear as the labyrinthine system of the old Bedford Group Hospital Management Committee. Postscript. In 1982 it was decided to remove the Area Health Authority (in Bedfordshire coterminous with the post 1974 County Boundaries). The Bedfordshire Area Health Authority: Northern District was replaced by the North Bedfordshire Health Authority. The signed minutes of this authority have not yet been deposited but copies of minutes of the main meetings (1982-1987) and of special interest groups on Community Care and Long Stay patients as well as other printed papers have been deposited by Dr J D Harte.
  • Archival history
    Deposited by A L Dickinson, Administration Manager, 3 Kimbolton Road, Bedford, MK40 2NU on 23rd May 1989
  • Reference
  • Level of description
    fonds
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