Ulster Hospital £41m building plan gets green light

DUP MLA Simon Hamilton was visiting the first phase of the construction project at the complex in Dundonald, to the east of Belfast, on Wednesday.

The first phase at the site has seen work get under way on a new ward block, which is due to be finished by spring 2017.

The second phase, for which £41m has now been released, will see an Acute Services Block constructed.

It is scheduled to be ready by spring 2020.

The Acute Services Block (or ASB) will include a new emergency department, inpatient radiology, and other facilities.

Work will begin later this year.

Mr Hamilton said: “We hear daily how pressures on key facilities like this continue to rise. It is vital that we provide safe, effective services in suitable accommodation.

“It is clear that everyone involved with this scheme has worked extremely hard. I look forward to the day when both elements are completed and operational.”

The ward block will include 288 single bedrooms with en suite toilets, plus four operating theatres, a pharmacy, cafe, and more.

Hugh McCaughey, chief executive of the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust, said that there had been “fantastic progress achieved to date”.

He described the planned new emergency department as a “much-needed” development.

The current emergency department is one of around a dozen across the Province.

On December 8, the trust was forced to release a statement urging the public to think twice about attending the Ulster Hospital’s emergency department because “unprecedented” demand had left the facility under “extreme pressure”.