In State ex rel. Bronaugh v. City of Parkersburg, 148 W.Va. 568, 136 S.E.2d 783 (1964), a physician asked this Court to compel the Board of Trustees of Camden-Clark Memorial Hospital, a public hospital, either to grant the physician's application for staff membership in and use of the facilities of Camden-Clark or give him notice and a hearing on his application. In discussing the matter, the Court noted that: "The authorities are almost unanimous in holding that private hospitals, in the exercise of their discretion, have the right to exclude licensed physicians from the use of their facilities. Public hospitals, however, are not entitled to that immunity. A regularly licensed physician and surgeon has a right to practice in the public hospitals of the state so long as he stays within the law and conforms to all reasonable rules and regulations of the institutions." (Bronaugh, 148 W.Va. at 572, 136 S.E.2d at 786.) The Court held in Syllabus Point 1 of Bronaugh: "A regularly licensed physician and surgeon who has conformed to the law and to all reasonable rules and regulations of a public hospital has a right to become a member of the staff thereof and, in the event such right is denied, he shall be afforded an opportunity to be heard and to offer his defense to any charges upon which such denial is based." Therefore, the Court granted the physician's petition for a writ of mandamus to compel Camden-Clark to grant him a hearing on his application for staff privileges.