Lilley Smith, a member of a trading family from Coventry, opened his ’self-supporting, parish and charitable Dispensary’ in Atherstone in 1828. It was one of the first of its kind in the country.

One of the earliest palces where the experiment was tried, was Atherstone in Warwickshire; and there, it appears, the Dispensary reckoned, in the first year, 764 free members, (that is, members who, by their contributions, entitled themselves to medical aid in the case of sickness,) and had a surplus income of £80 11s 3 1/2d., to be dividend among the medical practitioners of the place.

The Saturday Magazine, John William 1834

The Self-supporting and Charitable Dispensary recommended by Dr. Smith, is carried on well here by surgeons Bucknell and Bankerville, and Dr Arrowsmith. I am informed, that before this Dispensary was established there was not one in the town. Although only three years have elapsed since this institution has been at work, it now numbers 2,600 free subscribers amongst the poor. They, by paying one penny per week, choose their own doctor and have all the medicine they require, while the subscriptions of the affluent make up the deficiency. From the funds of the institution are provided wine, change of linen; by the these means a spirit of independence is engendered, and the poor command attention. Surgeon Bucknell thinks the decrease of the poor’s-rates may be ascribed to the Dispensary, and I have no doubt it may be. Sickness, by throwing a poor man out of work, and bringing a heavy doctor’s bill upon him, often bears him down and throws him upon the parish. It was stated to me, that before the establishment of the Dispensary sixty children died of the measles, and some hundreds, without any medical attendance, in a short space of time.

The Educational Magazine, 1835.