The new Health and Care Centre will be built on the Braid Valley Hospital site and will provide a range of community services including GP services, diagnostic services, community dentistry, podiatry, speech and language services, physiotherapy services, challenging behaviour services and community addictions unit. An Out-of-Hours service will also be provided from the new Centre.
Describing the new Ballymena centre, Health Minister Edwin Poots said: “This much needed facility will replace outdated accommodation and dramatically improve the provision and delivery of health care and social services to people in Ballymena and surrounding area. It will assist in my objective, reinforced in the Transforming Your Care document, of having more care provided outside of the hospital setting.”
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The Trust currently provides primary and community care services from a number of locations and properties dispersed across the Ballymena area. The Minister added: "The new Health and Care Centre in Ballymena will bring together a range of services in a modern, accessible, one-stop facility. GP services, selected acute outpatient and diagnostic services and a large number of multidisciplinary teams will be available under one roof."
The Minister announced funding for this build in July 2011.
He continued: "It is my aim to provide a full range of health and social care services outside the acute sector, in the community closer to where people live or work. This allows people to live independently for longer in their own homes, promotes good health, reduces unnecessary hospitalisation, improves chronic disease management and allows for early diagnosis and treatment. I am confident that this new facility will allow staff to manage patients’ conditions more effectively in the community through the co-location and integration of the GP practices and multi-disciplinary teams."
(PM/GK)
