Mortuary Registers?

Dennis · Post by **Dennis** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 6:43 pm

Hi,

Are hospital mortuaries required to maintain and preserve registers?

dennis

LesleyB · Post by **LesleyB** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 11:11 pm

hi Dennis
Interesting question there. I'm sure those who know about hospitals will put me right, but did hospitals have mortuaries in the past? (e.g. before 1900ish) I'm maybe wrong, but I think of mortuaries as relatively modern additions to hospitals. No doubt I'll find out soon!

Best wishes
Lesley

Post by **joette** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 11:37 am

I think that big teaching hospitals would have had morturaries but more for the teaching of anatomy than anything else.
I know that most Fever Hospitals & I think Poorhouses had their own Morturaries but how well maintained any Register would be I am not sure.
I can remember well the Mortuary at the local Hospital where I worked which had originally been a Fever Hospital built around 1890,s but if the Mortuary was a later addition I am not sure.

Russell · Post by **Russell** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 12:17 am

Hi

I know that most larger psychiatric hospitals (Asylums back then i.e. 1890's) had mortuaries. As far as I know there was no Mortuary Register since the death was already recorded in the person's file, the Ward Register and the main hospital lists. We had to complete lists of all deaths, admissions, transfers, discharges on a weekly basis for the central records dept.
Going back a hundred years there were very few administrative support staff so there was probably a large central register kept so the Physician Superintendant could argue his case for more funds, more nurses, better pharmacy services and to prove the hospital was doing its job.
They would need a central register of names to complete the Census every 10 years too.

Russell