Not being happy with the remuneration at Bournemouth University, Malcolm looked for work elsewhere and came across an advertisement for a clerk in the Records dept of Salisbury District Hospital. Malcolm though this would suit his aptitude so requested an application form. He completed the form and sent it back and was pleased to be called to an interview at the hospital on 3 September 1999. This went well including an aptitude test whereby he was asked to sort a pile of name cards into strict alphabetical order which he completed quickly in his hands without having to place the cards down on the table.

The interview was successful and he was offered the position, but, in the mean time he had been offered permanent employment at the University so he declined the offer from Salisbury Hospital. However, it transpired that the salary would not have been worthwhile so he turned that down. He then contacted Salisbury Hospital again to advise them of the situation and, as the position was still open, he was accepted.

Malcolm commenced work on Monday 30 September to work mornings only. This suited well as he was able to call in at Fordingbridge on the way home to visit his mother who was bed-ridden. That first day comprised an induction session prior to starting work. The session was for all staff so much of it not relevant to Malcolm but towards nursing staff. One lecturer made the point that medical staff should not wear their protective clothing out of the wards then, to his amusement, there she was in the shop at lunchtime wearing hers.

The Medical Records library where Malcolm worked was on the ground floor close to the reception area. It was cramped comprising racks of shelving on which were stored the folders containing patient notes and some desks atound the perimeter. There were actually not enough desks for everyone which made for a bit of a tussle sometimes. The filing system was based on 'significant digits'. Each file had a five figure number and all files with the same last two digits were put together in sequence. That was fine and the system worked well, however, the system had been changed briefly some years earlier and file numbers had contained seven digits so these were shelved separately. Furthermore, the files for recently deceased patients were kept separate but shelved in patient name order. Malcolm decided to rationalise this one day and shelve them in file number order as for the remainder of files but was told to put them back as before. His arguement was that if the same system applied to all files, then anybody, especially new members of staff, could readily find files. The management response was that they knew the system as it was.

Malcolm's daily work was to wait for the morning delivery of files which had been called up from remote storage ready to distribute to clinics or wards. The remote store was maintained by Pickfords at Old Sarum. The previous day Malcolm would have been given a list of required files by the various secretaries and it was his responsibility to send that off to Pickfords by 1pm to give them time to find the files. Malcolm was taken on a visit to the storage facility to meet the staff with whom he dealt. Sometimes, if a required file was not delivered, he had to liaise with Pickfords over the phone in order to locate the file.

Once the daily delivery of files had been received, Malcolm logged their location on the computer then sorted them according to the lists for that day before delivering each batch to the wards for new admissions or to the clinics for that days sessions. Occasionally files went missing or could not be found and there was a routine when this happened. Firstly, if the shelves were full, then files could be stacked adjacently on the floor or in boxes. Secondly, they could have filled incorrectly so looking in other possible locations was attempted. Thirdly, someone may have come into the library and taken a file without letting anyone know and, in this case, local knowledge of which department had taken it came into play.

A file having been requested from storage that did not arrive was initially ordered again. If that failed then the searches were initiated in house. The biggest problem was always a lost or misfiled folder but they were nearly always hunted down successfully. There was one particular file that was urgently required again after Malcolm had shelved it. It could not be found in it's proper location and other searches did not root it out. Consequently Malcolm was suspected of misplacing it but nothing was ever said directly to him. He spent any spare moments during th efollowings looking himself but never found it.

In quieter moments, Malcolm assisted in maintaining old files, repairing or reorganising them as necessary. Also, where duplicated files existed, they were merged into one. Folders that had been exposed to the MRSA virus had a warning sticker placed on them. Malcolm had been obliged to sign a confidentiality document at the start of his employment as he would be handling sensitive and personal information and such folders relating to people he knew did pass before his eyes. All folders for staff working in the library were actually kept separatley within the office.

Because of the flow of files in and out of the library, Malcolm was frequently expected to work additional hours and this he did willingly. There was never any difficulty in getting the hours approved for payment. He was usually glad to get out and do the rounds delivering folders as local radio was played all day long in the library and it did not suit Malcolm's taste.

There were perks to the job. As a member of staff, there was a discount in the cafeteria and usually everyone went down for a breakfast in mid morning. The was a staff car park which was free. There was a swimming pool which had been out of use until shortly before Malcolm quit the job so he went there during his lunch breaks. Breakfast served as lunch for Malcolm as he would be waiting for files to be delivered at that time. Later, at the proper lunchtime, he was busy sorting and delivering the files.

In November, Malcolm made the decision to quit the job as he and Brenda were about to move house, also his mother's health was declining and she needed some support. He explained the situation to his employer who understood but asked if he could work beyond his period of notice to which he agreed. He also agreed to place his name on the 'Bank' for relief work at busy times. However, at the end of the year, he advised his employer that he would leave completely at the end of January and that was agreed.

Work tailed off towards the end of his time at the hospital so he spent some time in the dead file store which was a temporary building with redundant files which had to be kept for a certain period of time. The folders in this store were filed in a rather random manner so Malcolm took it upon himself to place them in strictly correct order. As with his previous rearrangement of files, it did not go down too well but he did it nonetheless. Unfortunately he did not quite finish the job before he left.

During his last week, there was a staff meeting to discuss the move to a new area of the hospital and the introduction of a computerised system of handling the patient notes. His input was not invited as he was leaving despite he wishing to make comment on some of the current procedure. Instead, he was tasked with writing up on the blackboard pertinent points of the discussion. In the pattern of tradition, there was a small party in the office when Malcolm left for which he provided the refreshments.