With news of the Indian Hospitals class action and settlement here in Canada, I’ve had a few former patients reach out who are trying to piece together their memories of hospitalizations and track down their medical records.
I wrote this email to one and thought I’d share it broadly in case it’s useful for people. Disclaimer: I’m mostly familiar with the Charles Camsell Indian Hospital during the time period when it was run by the Federal Government, but hopefully some of this applies more broadly to other hospitals and time periods.
1) You can request your records through an Access to Information (ATIP) request and focus on particular record groups at Library and Archives Canada (LAC). It looks like they’ve made this all online since my last request.
2) There is a newer page on the LAC site with lots of information about what kinds of records are available and how to search for them.
3) You might try and check out the Camsell Pictorial Review and Camsell Arrow, newsletters/yearbooks from the Camsell Hospital to see if there are pictures of you or patients and staff you remember, or write-ups and other things that jog your memory. Different archives have different issues digitally and in physical form, but I think this mostly ended around when the hospital became run provincially. I found the City of Edmonton Archives and Provincial Archives of Alberta have the most. LAC also has some.
4) You could watch the documentary created by the Edmonton Heritage Council: “Camsell” (2016) – 13 minutes.
5) Ghosts of Camsell blog – I worked on this mostly in 2015-16 and later let the domain lapse, but some of the info is archived.
6) Cree researcher and medical professional Melissa Grant-Cardinal created a blog about finding records for former Camsell patients around that same time that still is useful.
As always, looking at these materials, having these conversations, and doing this research can bring up a lot. Please take good care of yourself and reach out for help if you are having a hard time.
Please also keep in mind that records can and were moved, lost and sometimes disposed of in keeping with record management practices of only holding onto things for so long and to protect patient privacy. Also, if you do an ATIP request you might find that parts are redacted or blacked out to protect other patients’ names and private information. Hopefully knowing this ahead of time can help you understand the process and manage expectations of how much you might receive. In other cases, though, we were able to learn more about diagnoses, procedures, attending staff, transportation, and dates. I hope you will find what you need!