[3] The origins of English charitable movements for the operation of dispensaries and other types of establishment for treatment of illness, such as hospitals, lying-in facilities and lunatic asylums, can be traced to the Georgian era.
[b] These charitable endeavours were referred to as "voluntary hospitals" and, according to medical historian Roy Porter, "... signal[led] a new recognition on the part of influential elites that the people's health mattered.
Those who attended patients under the aegis of such organisations generally did so at no charge, although they might gain social prestige and clients as a result of their actions.
[12] Similarly, those who donated or subscribed to the institutions generally gained access to networking opportunities, as well as a voice in the management of the charity and the right to refer patients to it.
[7] A dispensary on a similar model had opened at Chorlton-on-Medlock around 1825–1826 because the MI, which at that time was the city's only medical institution, was unwilling to extend its services to that area due to lack of subscriptions.
[12] George Murray, the wealthy owner of a substantial textile mill complex in the area, was the dispensary's first president;[15] the first physician, and one of the founders,[12] was James Kay, whose Moral and Physical Condition of the Working Classes (1832) was in large part based on his experiences there.
[18] The demographics of the area in which it was situated — densely populated, industrialised and socio-economically deprived — caused it to deal with a lot of accidents[c] and infectious diseases.
A further move, to larger premises on Mill Street, was enabled by a gift and later bequest totalling £7,000[19] made by Hannah Brackenbury, a philanthropist whose origins lay in Manchester.
Means testing was introduced by the association, which had arrangements with hospitals for the provision of treatment, midwifery services and similar requirements, as well as providing care itself for, at worst, a minimal charge.
[23] A rural convalescent home, financed by a donation from the Crossley family and land provided by the David Lewis Trust, opened near Alderley Edge in 1904.
It provided the city's first x-ray department in 1907 and, in 1914, Harry Platt - who was later to become a renowned orthopaedic surgeon - instituted the world's first clinic dedicated to the treatment of fractures.
This succeeded despite the Great Depression, allowing the provision of an additional 100 beds, an extra operating theatre, a separate casualty block, enlargements to the x-ray facilities and pathology laboratory, and a permanent massage department.
[17] There was a threat of closure during the 1950s but the next two decades saw continued improvements made to the structures and facilities, including the creation of new outpatients' and accident departments.
[25] As of 2013[update], the main dispensary building, which was Grade II listed in 1974,[26] was under threat of demolition after the developer, Urban Splash, claimed that it was unable to find an economically viable use for it.