HALF-a-century of medical care is being commemorated this week.
The 50th anniversary of the arrival of the first patients at the Ulster Hospital was ushered in yesterday as staff and ex-employees cut a gigantic cake.
The Ulster Hospital was first founded in 1873 as a children’s hospital in Chichester Street, Belfast.
In 1876 it outgrew the building and moved to Fisherwick Place, and in 1882 it also began to admit women patients, before moving to Templemore Avenue in 1891.
In April and May 1941, the Nazis launched ferocious bombing raids on the city, hitting the hospital roof on May 4, 1941, and forcing it to move to the Ormeau Road.
Later in the 1940s a building fund was created to build a new, large general hospital for the east Belfast area, with residents urged to donate cash under a symbolic “buy-a-brick” scheme.
Those who bought a brick for £50 are immortalised on the first floor landing of the Ulster Hospital on a wooden plaque, but thousands of others bought the ten shilling (50p) brick - and probably still have them.
By September, 1948, a total of £89,000 had been raised.
The first patients were moved to the site on October 28, 1962.
Today, building work is set to begin soon on a new inpatient accommodation block to replace the old block.