NHS Grampian Archives hold the historic records of more than 100 hospitals and health organisations from across the Grampian region. These cover the period from 1739, when the Infirmary at Aberdeen was founded, to the late 20th century.
You can find out more about the collections, search some indexes and read some stories from the collections, and find out about accessing the records by clicking on the links on the left hand menu bar.
Most of the records from the 18th and 19th centuries are of hospitals: general and specialist hospitals, cottage hospitals and asylums. These collections have information on the administrative and financial affairs of the hospitals and on individuals who were patients, staff or managers.
There is also information on members of the general public who contributed to local hospitals in the time before the National Health Service by means of annual subscriptions, donations or legacies. As some of the capital of the larger hospitals was tied up in land, estate papers are also to be found among some hospital records. In addition, there are records from three local poorhouses which in 1948 became hospitals in the newly-formed NHS.
Material from the 20th century includes both hospital collections and the records of a range of local health organisations. Amongst the latter are the minutes of the local National Insurance Committees set up under the 1911 National Health Insurance Act and the records of the various NHS administrative bodies, i.e. the North Eastern Regional Hospital Board (1948-1974) and its constituent Boards of Management, local Executive Councils and, from 1974, Grampian Health Board, now NHS Grampian. Also contained in the archives are records of local authority health departments which, prior to 1974, had responsibility for a range of healthcare services including prevention of epidemics, mother and child welfare, and school medical services.
Fiona Musk, NHS Grampian Archivist
Email: gram.archives@nhs.scot *Please note change of email address from September 2020*
NHS Grampian Archives
University Collections
The Sir Duncan Rice Library
Bedford Road
Aberdeen
AB24 3AA