CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

Altnagelvin Area Hospital

hospital in Northern Ireland

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 2, 2026
Entity authorityQ4736758 ↗
Source-derived summary

Altnagelvin Area Hospital is the main hospital for the North West of Northern Ireland. It is located in Waterside, Derry. It provides services to the city of Derry and County Londonderry, but also some specialist and acute services for parts of neighbouring County Donegal, County Tyrone, County Antrim and County Fermanagh. It is managed by the Western Health and Social Care Trust.

History

Altnagelvin Area Hospital was the first major hospital built in the United Kingdom after the Second World War and opened in 1960.

In February 2003 the hospital was designated as one of the nine acute hospitals in the acute hospital network of Northern Ireland on which healthcare would be focused under the government health policy 'Developing Better Services'.

A new renal hemodialysis unit was completed in 2005 and a new laboratory and pharmacy centre, procured under a private finance initiative contract, opened in 2007. A new south wing, designed by HLM Architects and built at a cost of £45 million, was completed in 2010.

In January 2011, it was revealed that 18,500 xrays taken in 2009 and 2010 in Altnagelvin's Medical Imaging Department had not been examined by a radiologist. As a result, four patients with cancer had their diagnosis delayed by several months.

Editorial summary

“Altnagelvin Area Hospital” enters the record as hospital in Northern Ireland. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Altnagelvin, Area and Hospital can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1960, 2003, 2005, 2007—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1960. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Altnagelvin, Area and Hospital.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Altnagelvin Area Hospital” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Altnagelvin, Area and Hospital provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4736758. Authority coordinates are 54.985, -7.295. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1960, 2003, 2005 and 2007.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Altnagelvin Area Hospital”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Altnagelvin Area Hospital primary sources, Altnagelvin Area Hospital archive and Altnagelvin research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Altnagelvin Area Hospital”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Altnagelvin Area Hospital” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.