Dunbar Cottage Hospital

Management and administration 1919-1948; patients (bound records) 1927-1949

Origins lie in the Battery Hospital, a small World War I military hospital. Subsequently, the building was used to found the Dunbar and District Cottage Hospital which functioned from 1919-1926. Yorke Lodge was then acquired. In 1948 it became part of the Board of Management of East Lothian Hospitals under the South Eastern Hospital Board and changed its name to Dunbar Cottage Hospital. The hospital closed in 1973 when Dunbar's hospital services were centralised at Belhaven Hospital and the building was then used as a holiday home for patients. In 1974 it became part of the North Lothian District of Lothian Health Board.

Chronological within record class

Public access to these records is governed by the UK Data Protection Act 1998, the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and the latest version of the Scottish Government Records Management: NHS Code of Practice (Scotland). Whilst some records may be accessed freely by researchers, the aforementioned legislation and guidelines mean that records with sensitive information on named individuals may be closed to the public for a set time.

Where records are about named deceased adults, they will be open 75 years after the latest date in the record, on the next 01 January. Records about individuals below 18 years (living or deceased) or adults not proven to be deceased will be open 100 years after the latest date in the record, on the next 01 January. Further information on legislation and guidelines covering medical records can be found on the LHSA webpage (http://www.lhsa.lib.ed.ac.uk/).

LHSA can support the use of records closed to public access for legitimate clinical, historical and genealogical research purposes. Please contact the LHSA Archivist for more details regarding procedures on how you can apply for permission to view closed records. Telephone us on: 0131 650 3392 or email us at lhsa@ed.ac.uk

Robert Wilson, Administrator, East Lothian Hospitals, October 1983

Compiled by Mike Barfoot and Jenny McDermott using existing handlists

Manual tem-level descriptive list available

Records held within the National Health Service prior to transfer

No further accessions are expected

East Lothian Hospitals Board of Management (LHB17)East Lothian Hospitals Board of Management (LHB17)North Lothian District, Lothian Health Board (LHB27)