Letter, E. Vale to a hospital committee

To the committee —

I am asked to comment on the proposal to destroy the ward day books at seven years rather than twenty-five, and I do object, though not on the ground the committee will expect.

The argument for destruction is that nobody consults them. That is true and it is not the point. The point is that the ward sister who writes tonight's entry writes it differently if she knows it will be there in twenty years. Remove the twenty years and you have not saved shelving; you have changed what is written.

I would put it this way, and I am aware it is not a committee's language. A decision made by a person who will not be present for its consequences is a different kind of decision. It is not usually a worse one. It is a lighter one, and lightness accumulates.

Against myself: I have argued the opposite in this room about the outpatient cards, where I thought the keeping was an intrusion on the patients, and I have not reconciled the two views. I do not intend to try before Friday.

The practical habits of an office outlast its stated policies by about a decade in my experience. I would rather the committee changed a habit than issued a principle.

E. Vale, Records.