Ulster Hospital's £4m new Urgent Care unit set to open - six months late

The new unit at Northern Ireland’s second-busiest hospital, linked to its under-pressure Emergency Department, was supposed to be up and running before the end of January, but health bosses now say it’ll open its doors on June 19.

The Urgent Care Centre is designed to take less serious cases – broken bones, bruises and sprains, animal bites, minor head injuries, and abscesses and wound infections. The hope is it’ll take pressure off the Emergency Department, freeing its doctors up to tackle acute and life-threatening injuries.

It replaces and improves upon a Minor Injuries Unit (MIU) at the hospital, which shuts the day before the Urgent Care Centre opens.

The £4m new ward will be open for 10 hours a day, from 8am to 6pm, and can receive both walk-ins and patients who have called in advance.

However, the care centre has proved enormously controversial since it was first mooted as two Co Down MIUs, one in Bangor and the other in Newtownards, were axed to make way for it.

That was despite 19,000 people signing a petition calling for the MIUs to be saved, and the majority of politicians in both areas leading protests against the closures.

One of them was North Down MLA Stephen Dunne, who now says he’s hopeful the Urgent Care Centre will be “a positive and much-needed development for our health service” as well as his constituents in particular.

"This centre was promised as part of the transition of services following the closure of Bangor and Newtownards MIUs,” added the DUP man.

"Although I was deeply disappointed to discover earlier this year that the opening had been delayed from January until June, I am hopeful this centre will have a positive impact on wider pressures at the Ulster Hospital now that it is fully operational.

"Our NHS staff continue to go above and beyond, and it’s vital they are supported with the right infrastructure and resources. This Centre is an important part of that support, and I will continue to advocate for further investment in our local health services – including the provision of a new primary care centre in Bangor.”

The Bangor and Newtownards MIUs were shut down in September 2023, despite huge opposition to the move. In addition to the 19,000-strong petition, more than 80% of people who replied to a public consultation were against the idea, many of them pointing out difficulties travelling from Bangor or remote rural parts of the Ards area to the Ulster Hospital, or citing issues with waiting times there.

Health Trust officials were adamant the Urgent Care Centre would be better than the MIUs, stating it will “give patients easier access to medical assessment and clinical investigations on the same site” as the Ulster’s Emergency Department.

In recent years, that Emergency Department has regularly hit the headlines for spiralling waiting times, with patients complaining of being stuck waiting for hours upon hours – a situation that got worse every winter.

It’s hoped the new unit will ease those pressures by taking in more easily treatable patients, leaving the Emergency Department for severe cases.