Health Minister praises Trust staff as he tours Ulster Hospital emergency department and new urgent care centre site
The South Eastern Trust was delighted to welcome the Health Minister to the Emergency Department at the Ulster Hospital recently.
Health Minister Mike Nesbitt MLA, who was greeted by the Trust's Chief Executive Roisin Coulter, spent some time talking to the dedicated staff and stopped to speak to some of the patients.
The Minister was also able to visit one of the acute wards, where he was able to see the fantastic work that is taking place there to care for the patients.
The Health Minister then donned his hard hat and high visibility jacket to tour the Urgent Care Centre, below the Emergency Department, which is under construction.
Speaking after the visit, the Health Minister said: "It's very clear that our hospitals and wider health and social care services continue to face significant pressure, with demand on services far outweighing capacity.
"I want to acknowledge and thank the staff that I met at the Ulster Hospital. Despite the ongoing challenges, they continue to demonstrate the utmost professionalism and relentless courtesy.
"Our health and social care system relies on all parts working together, that is why I have made it a priority to get out and visit social care, primary care and secondary care.
"These engagements have provided me with important opportunities to hear from those on the frontline and understand the inter-related issues.
"I was also pleased to see first-hand how work is progressing on the new Urgent Care Centre, which when open, will play a crucial role in ensuring people are cared for in the most appropriate setting."
The Chief Executive of the South Eastern Trust Roisin Coulter said: "It was great to welcome the Health Minister to our Emergency Department and one of our acute hospital wards, so he could see for himself the challenges our fantastic staff experience every day and the incredible work that they do to care for their patients.
"It was also important to discuss how we can keep people well at home and how we can support people to discharge safely, to maintain the flow through our hospitals.”
Emergency Department Consultant Andrew Dobbin said: "It was a good opportunity to showcase the really good things in health at the moment but also see where the difficulties lie.
"There's no doubt the Health Minister has got a lot of difficult challenges ahead to ensure we deliver the best health care possible for our patients.
"When it opens, the Urgent Care Centre will allow us to see more patients who typically would have been seen in the Emergency Department, in the Urgent Care space. This will improve timely and quality care for patients who come to the Ulster Hospital."
Echoing his thoughts, the Trust's Director of Unscheduled Care Marc Neill added: " We're really excited about the development of our Urgent Care Centre here on the Ulster site.
"It's going to give us greatly increased clinical capability for our emergency medical team to look after the high number of people who need our care."