Regional comparators in the funding and organisation of the voluntary hospital system, c.1860–1939

This article examines voluntary hospital provision in two very different areas: East Anglia and industrial South Yorkshire. A brief national survey of changes in hospital finances and their suggested impact is offered with a view to the diversity and sustainability of the sector. The related and more difficult task is to consider whether the case examples indicate that a functioning regional voluntary hospital system, the model most frequently prescribed by the sector’s supporters, had emerged in these areas by 1939.