It provides acute services in the North Down, Ards and Castlereagh council areas, as well as east Belfast.

[1] It was initially located on Chichester Street in Belfast City Centre but moved to Templemore Avenue in Mountpottinger in 1892.

[1] The first X-ray machine at the hospital was installed in 1920 and Dr Beath was employed to operate it.

[3] lt was opened in 1962 by the Duchess of Gloucester, who described it as ‘not only of functional excellence but also of distinctive beauty’.

[4] Over several decades demand on hospital inpatient services increased, and resulting shortfalls in bed capacity and funding were reported by the local news media around the millennium.