There were plans for the southern wing to become a military hospital in 1840, however this did not come to fruition.Colonial governments accepted a degree of responsibility for pauper patients who were not convicts. However, as convict numbers declined and the emancipated and free population grew, the government disengaged itself from direct responsibility for the 'respectable poor'. Meanwhile, the Sydney Dispensary had been created in 1826 to provide outpatient care for 'free poor persons, unable to pay for medical attendance'. It was conducted on traditional charitable lines and operated from several city premises before obtaining the south wing of the Rum Hospital in 1845 where it remained until 1848. This change in use of the South Wing required more repairs to the internal and external building fabric from 1843. At the same time, the Sydney Dispensary expanded to serve inpatients and changed its name to the Sydney Infirmary and Dispensary, a title officially approved in 1844. Convict inpatients continued to be treated in the separately managed hospital in the centre wing, next door. With the dissolution of the convict hospital system, the Sydney Infirmary and Dispensary gave up the south wing in 1848 in return for permissive occupancy of the entire middle section of the Rum Hospital complex.