An infirmary at Alnwick was instigated at a public meeting on 9 June 1815 as the Alnwick Dispensary "to administer advice and medicine to the poor, to promote vaccine inoculation and to afford aid in cases requiring the greater applications of surgery."

Subscriptions and donations continued to be in excess of the expenditure up to 1839, when £4900 was invested in 3 per cent consols.

The institution having then the reputation of being a rich body, donations were seldom made and the subscriptions were lessened, so that debt accumulated and it became necessary to sell stock funds and to seek additional public aid to clear off the incumbrance.

A hospital formed part of the Alnwick Union Workhouse, built in 1841 on Wagonway road.

[d] A fever hospital was established between 1886 and 1888 on a greenfield site about 0.5 miles (0.80 km) south of the workhouse, and was used until 1952.