Here is an interesting and spirited article written by Dr Greg de Moore, psychiatrist, lecturer & author, on record-keeping, retention & disposal.
Published in the Sydney Morning Herald, Tuesday 30 November 2010, it is specifically about the destruction of medical records:
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/destroying-records-is-an-act-of-vandalism-20101129-18dta.html
A small excerpt: "Up until several years ago psychiatric records were kept indefinitely, but a change in the guidelines has now allowed them to be destroyed.
Throughout NSW, I was informed, records had already been rooted out and eradicated, or were in preparation to be destroyed. Gone are records from Rozelle/Callan Park, Cumberland, James Fletcher and Kenmore psychiatric hospitals - gone in a bonfire of insanity that has incinerated notes from 1961 through to the late 1980s.
After making inquiries I was told - with a detached complacency - that this destruction was part of a statewide cull."
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It is on the State Records NSW website:
http://www.records.nsw.gov.au/recordkeeping/government-recordkeepin...