Where can we expect data related to health care during both world wars
and how do we find it We would expect that most data from health section for
the given period would be in the archival material of the Royal Ban's administration of Drava Banovina which represented royal authority in Yugoslav part of
Slovenian territory.
Personal folders of employees of ban and banovina are preserved in the
registry folder XVI (SI AS 67) which are strictly alphabetically listed. They contain employment record book (Uslužbenski list) and additional personal folders
where copies of birth certificates, educational certificates, certificates for further education, promotions, specialization etc. can be found: i.e. leave in 1942;
Italian occupational authorities, without income reimbursement; data on doctors as part-time employees of ban's administration with the stated price on
their performance on certain administrative tasks, on doctors' work in state
hospitals, their functions, their classifications in official – medical pay grades,
appeals against such processes, and their resignations. Registry folder XVII (SI
AS 68) contains matters related to health care and data on medical personnel,
midwives, pharmacies, inoculations, epidemics, and admittances to hospitals
and poorhouses. We should expect to find most material in the legacy of Department of social politics and national health (SI AS 74) which was responsible for
the disabled and the poor, for work permits, supervising administration of state
health resorts, swimming pools, hospitals, children's institutions, establishment
and construction of hospitals, medical practices, pharmacy concessions, and hygiene services. Emigration section, work inspection, and treasury for building
small housing were operating within the department. The material of fond was
mostly destroyed after the war, only the material of emigration section, some
fragments of the material of work inspection and some material which concerns
hospital administration and treasury for building small housing is preserved.
Among statistics and tourist propaganda, the material of tourism section (SI
AS 76) also contains regulations governing the area of hygiene. A special health
care service, inspection of mining operation for the protection of mining staff
at all mining sites, mines, and smelting plants were managed in its mining section. Reports and analyses relevant for banovina and state budget composition
can be found in the material of Ban's Council (SI AS 77), in minutes of meetings
in which they are included; financially evaluated elaborates, reports and budgets for state hospitals, health care and social institutions in Drava Banovina are
usually enclosed with the minutes. Plans for some hospitals, social institutions,
health resorts, holiday houses are in the material of Technical Department of
ban administration (SI AS 73, SI AS 200) and in the general collection of plans.
Searching the data in material of Drava Banovina can be facilitated by the use of
office registers. Firstly, we can use the index and search by keywords, classification – descriptor; by specific person, place, activity, event etc. so that we get the
file number to find an entry for the same timeline in the work register showing
the subject of the matter, to whom and when it was sent for resolving, and when
and where it was filed. Then we inspect the records stored in folder signature:
department, registry folder, section, referat, year, and number of files to-from.
It needs to be emphasized that, due to then centralized administration of the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia, only 5-10% of the archival material of Drava Banovina
is preserved in administration fonds. Only the material needed for current business, for issuing various permits, for repeated procedures, for fees, registration,
for covering financial obligations, investigations, misdemeanours, sanctions etc. is preserved. If procedures were successfully resolved, only the entries in office
registers that show data only on actors, that something was happening and was
successfully resolved, are usually available.