Sheffield Daily Telegraph – Monday 18 June 1928

Hospital Dispute.

Subscribers’ Views Voiced at Mexborough.

The dispute between the Board of Management of the Mexborough Montagu Hospital and their honorary medical staff was again brought to the fore yesterday, when over 5,000 people assembled on the Mexborough cricket field for the annual Hospital Sunday demonstration.

Mr. George Price, of Wath, who presided, said that hitherto nobody had had a word to say about the dispute except the members of the management committee and the doctors.

It was high time both sides knew what the subscriber was thinking. The success of the hospital depended on co-operation. All but three of the doctors were at variance with the management, with the result that the doctors would only treat their own patients in the hospital.

That had resulted in Dr. Connell, their Sheffield specialist, attending the hospital twice instead of once per week, which was costing the hospital an additional per year.

In view of that he could not see how anybody could say that the hospital was not suffering. The hospital was suffering, and it would continue to do so until the dispute was settled. He appealed to the doctors and management committee to get together and try to remove the misunderstanding.

Mr. W. A. Lewis (Chairman of the Management Committee) said that the matter was closed. The Board had done all that was humanly possible, and they had failed. There was only one way to settlement, and that was for the Board to make an abject surrender of their governing authority.

‘‘lf any of you cares to take walk to the hospital,” went on Mr. Lewis, ‘‘you will find that work is still being carried on in the old way.”