Surgery History

The current Carryduff Practice dates from 1978 when Dr Browne took over a single handed practice from Dr Norman Calwell. Dr Calwell had run a small, very successful single handed GP Practice from his own house at 51 Ballynahinch Road, Carryduff. In this he was greatly helped by his wife, Mrs Mildred Calwell who was a registered Nurse. The story that they met in the snow when Dr Calwell was out on a home visit is a very nice, and I think true one. Dr Calwell retired in 1978 and Dr Browne was appointed as his successor.

The early days were interesting and never dull, both for Doctor and patients. Dr Calwell had run his surgeries at 1pm and 6pm, including Saturdays with his half day on Friday where there was no evening surgery. I am sure that these hours would be popular today with patients, but not so with GPs.

There were no premises available and so the first surgeries were carried out in Carryduff Church of Ireland Church Hall (thanks to the good services and help from the late Reverend Rossie Good). The waiting room was shared by the patients and the children from the Play School which was run in the hall. The Surgery was the Ministers Room and the heating in this room was a little erratic - this led at times to the Doctor carrying out surgeries in his overcoat and the possibility of the Doctor undressing anyone to examine them was out of the question. This was obviously not a satisfactory long term solution and so another base for the surgery was sought. Thomas Lowe and Sons had premises on the main Ballynahinch Road, and once again they were helpful allowing rent of initially upstairs in their original office block, moving to downstairs and eventually taking over the whole building as the surgery expanded.

Mr Tommy Hull, who worked for Lowes for many years, was instrumental in helping establish the surgery in its new location. Interestingly this location, Lowes House had been not only Lowes main office for many years, but prior to that the Lowes family home. Even more interestingly long before that it had been the Public House on the horse drawn road to Dublin. Is it any wonder that today's Doctors still recommend a hot whisky as one of the best remedies for a cold? In 1989 Drs Browne and Clarke purchased land at the corner of the Hillsborough Road and the current surgery was built after a lot of hard work from many people.

Special thanks should be given to the Architects, Chaplin, Hall Black and Douglas, especially Mervyn Black and the Builder David McClune who worked very hard on our behalf. Mr Arthur Newberry then built his chemist shop on the site and the surgery has had a couple of extensions since.

There is nowhere now left to extend! Since then the surgery has grown steadily and now there are 5 partners in the surgery and the Practice has grown from 1500 patients to nearer 9000.