It is managed by the Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

The hospital has its origins in the Barnsley Union Workhouse Infirmary which opened in 1852.

[1] It was expanded in 1875 and a new purpose-built infirmary, designed with a pavilion layout, was completed in 1883.

[2] A major redevelopment of the site to create Barnsley District General Hospital was completed in 1977.

[2] In 2021 an extension to the emergency department was opened which brings together the hospital’s previous paediatric units into a single location.