The Oxford Regional Hospital Board was in existence from 1947 - 31st March 1974.
When the National Health Service (NHS) was formed in 1948, it was thought that the organisation was too large to be managed as a single entity. Instead, separate and largely autonomous regions were created, each headed by a Board responsible for the development of services in its area. The Oxford Region was one of them.
The first meeting of the Oxford Regional Hospital Board was on 14th July 1947. They had less than a year before the start of the NHS in 1948, to bring together the vast mixture of public and private care and establish a coherent chain of management, which could shape an effective and unified service.
When the Board first met in 1947, it had to establish the exact boundaries of the Region, and visit all the hospitals it was considered should be in the new Region to talk with each about their future. The Board then had to set up groups and appoint members to the local hospitals management committees.
The Oxford Region essentially covered the counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire. Included in the Oxford Region were 105 hospitals (plus the teaching hospitals which the Oxford Regional Hospital Board was not responsible for the administration of as they were administered by separate Board of Governors).
The Oxford Regional Hospital Board met formally for the last time in 1973, as preparations for the NHS reorganisation started to take greater effect. The change from Regional Hospital Board to Regional Health Authority official happened on 1st April 1974 when the Oxford Regional Health Authority was created.
See catalogue H5 for records of the Oxford Regional Health Authority.
For further background information on the Oxford Regional Hospital Board and the Oxford Regional Health Authority, see the printed book 'The Diary of a Regional Health Authority, 1947-1994'. A copy is available for consultation at Oxfordshire History Centre.
This catalogue H4 is divided into 15 sections:
H4/1 - OXFORD REGIONAL HOSPITAL BOARD
H4/2 - JOINT MEDICAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE AND THE MEDICAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE
H4/3 - GERIATRIC DEPARTMENTS / MEDICINE FOR THE ELDERLY
H4/4 - OBSTETRICS / GYNAECOLOGY DEPARTMENTS
H4/5 - PAEDIATRICS DEPARTMENTS
H4/6 - DEPARTMENTS OF PHYSICAL MEDICINE
H4/7 - RADIOLOGY / PSYCHOLOGICAL MEDICINE
H4/8 - RADIOTHERAPY / CANCER
H4/9 - SURGERY
H4/10 - TRAUMA AND ORTHOPAEDIC
H4/11 - VENEREOLOGY
H4/12 - NURSING RECORDS
H4/13 - OXFORD METHOD
H4/14 - MISCELLANEOUS COMMITTEES
H4/15 - OXFORD REGIONAL HOSPITAL BOARD PUBLICATIONS
The records in this catalogue, H4, were deposited as Accessions 3823, 4032 and 4735. H4 was catalogued by Jenny Childs, March 2003. Additional Accession 6355 was deposited in February 2015 and catalogued by Rosanna Ritchie in April 2023.