General Practitioner Local Medical Committees of Edinburgh and Lothian

Scope and Content

Edinburgh Local Medical Committee 1947-1975; Lothian Local Medical Committee and General Practice Sub-Committee of Lothian Area Medical Committee 1953-1990; related papers 1946-1984

Administrative / Biographical History

In 1948 Executive Councils replaced old Insurance Committees under the 1947 National Health Service (Scotland) Act. Local Medical Committees represented the interests of GPs. The City of Edinburgh had its own Executive Council and its own local medical committee. The members of Edinburgh Local Medical Committee (ELMC) were elected at a meeting of Edinburgh doctors on 11th June 1947, and the first ELMC meeting was held on 19th June 1947. Seven members of ELMC were elected at this first meeting to make up part of the membership of the Executive Council, as instructed in the Act.In 1972 a new Act was passed creating a more unified health service in Scotland. This Act abolished Regional Hospital Boards and Executive Councils, replacing them with local health boards which were to carry out functions on behalf of the Secretary of State for Scotland. Thus Lothian Health Board was formed, and in 1974 a new Lothian Area Medical Committee (LAMC) was created, with a General Practitioners Sub-Committee (GPSC). Lothian Local Medical Committee (LLMC) took the place of the existing local medical committee for Lothians and Peebles, with office-bearers from the GPSC taking the same posts within LLMC.

Arrangement

Chronological within record class

Access Information

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

Acquisition Information

Dr Jacqueline McDonald, GP Sub-Committee of Lothian Area Medical Committee, October 1996

Note

Compiled by Mike Barfoot and Jenny McDermott using existing handlists

Other Finding Aids

Manual item-level descriptive list available

Conditions Governing Use

Reproduction is subject to closure periods and physical condition

Accruals

No further accessions are expected