NRS-17777 | Minutes of the Honorary Medical Board [Royal Newcastle Hospital]

The Medical Board, consisting of the medical staff of the Hospital ("the doctors"), was both a Practicioner Committee and the single most important Advisory Committee at the Royal Newcastle Hospital. It was also the longest lived of any of the Hospital's various Boards and Committees, being in existence from at least as early as 6 July 1897 (1); it may have originated in the action taken by the doctors, in the course of a dispute with the Medical Superintendent, in organizing themselves as a “Medical Union” on 10 July 1892. (2) The latest reference to it in the Minutes of the Board of Directors occurs on 16 February 1984. (3) From 3 June 1982, it was known as the Medical Staff Council. (4)A section of the Medical Board’s Minutes “prior to 1961” was reported missing as early as 1963. (5) Minutes subsequent to 1961 are attested to have been kept in a locked filing cabinet at the Hospital; (6) their present disposition remains unknown. Present holdings of this series consist of a single volume, covering the years 1936-1946. This volume is of the quarter-leather-bound ledger type; its covers, and especially the spine, are much worn and knocked, but otherwise it remains sound. Several items of Board-related correspondence have been inserted inside the front cover of this volume, and some others are to be found elsewhere between its pages.Endotes1. Minute Book, General Committee (NRS 17728 [B10740]), pp 21, 27.2. Cf. Minute Book (NRS 17728 [B10737]), pp 74ff.3. Minutes of Meetings of the Board of Directors (NRS 17728 [B13821]), p.10.4. Minutes of Meetings of the Board of Directors (NRS 17728 [B13819]), p.50.5. Minutes of Meetings of the Board of Directors (NRS 17728 [B13803]), pp 20-21.6. Minutes of Meetings of the Board of Directors (NRS 17728 [B13803]), p. 21.