Ulster Hospital

The Ulster Hospital is a teaching hospital in Dundonald in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is within the townland of Ballyregan, beside the A20 road.The hospital provides acute services to 250,000 people in the North Down, Ards and Castlereagh council areas, as well as east Belfast. It is also one of four regional cancer units in Northern Ireland.HistoryThe hospital was first founded as the Ulster Hospital for Women and Sick Children in 1872. It was initially located on Chichester Street in Belfast city centre. It subsequently moved to Mountpottinger Road and then Templemore Avenue. While located in Mountpottinger the hospital was severely damaged in the 1941 Belfast Blitz. In 1962 it was relocated to Dundonald and renamed the Ulster Hospital.A seven-year £98m refurbishment programme was announced in 2001. Initially, there were plans to build an entirely new hospital, but these were scrapped. The redevelopment has included an ungraded A&E department, a new maternity block, a critical care unit and a renal unit. In the redevelopment plans were revised in 2006, with the work being split into two phases with total investment increasing to over £340m by 2016. The new plans also include seven new operating theatres and a multi-storey car park. The car park was opened in 2007, helping to solve significant shortages in the past.