This proposal was realised when the Dundee Infirmary was opened in King Street on 11 March 1798, just under four years after its foundation stone had been laid, with the cost of the building being £1,400.
In 1820, the asylum was formally established as a separate entity in its own premises in Albert Street, and the hospital gained its official title of "Dundee Royal Infirmary", although locals would often simply refer to it as "the DRI".
[7] When opened in 1798 the infirmary had two physicians, Sir Alexander Douglas and Dr John Willison and seven visiting surgeons who rotated on a monthly basis.
[9] Despite the extensions of the 1820s, the expanding population of Dundee and lack of bed space meant that the King Street premises were no longer adequate by the middle of the nineteenth century.
[1][10][11] Located near Dudhope Castle, the new home of the infirmary was a large neo-Elizabethan construct with a central gatehouse comparable to that of an Oxbridge College.
[12][13] On top of this the Normandy stone around the building's windows proved unable to cope with the climate and within thirty years had to be replaced at a cost of around £5,000.
[13] Originally fever patients had been treated in ordinary wards at DRI, but as awareness of the need for isolation to prevent the spread of contagious disease grew during the nineteenth century, this practice ceased.
In the 1860s and 1870s smallpox and typhus patients were treated in wooden pavilions at other sites and this ultimately led to the opening of a separate hospital for infectious diseases at King's Cross in 1889.
[17][18] Prior to the creation of the National Health Service, the infirmary depended heavily on the generosity of wealthy benefactors such as the aforementioned Sir David Baxter and other textile magnates including Peter Carmichael of Arthurstone and James Key Caird.
[16][24][25] A specialist Neurosurgery Department was set up in the 1960s by Joseph Block and Ivan Jacobson, who pioneered the use of advanced neuro-surgical techniques at the hospital, and officially opened in 1966.
[16] After closure, the buildings and site were declared to be surplus to requirements by the Dundee Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and announced to be available for development.
In 1873 the recently appointed medical superintendent Dr R. Sinclair reported that the Infirmary's nursing department was in an unsatisfactory state, with the weakness and inefficiency of night staff being a particular problem.
[39] Also based at the Infirmary was Sir Donald Douglas, who would use his research into surgical infection and wound healing to help design Ninewells Hospital.
[57] Items from Dundee Royal Infirmary are also included in the collections held by Tayside Medical History Museum, based at Ninewells Hospital.
These, along with other items relating to the hospital, are displayed on the DRI Memorial Wall, which was unveiled in November 2008, and can be found at the entrance to Ninewell's South Block.