Acute hospital to open doors

It has taken 11 years to complete the project

A healthy new era will dawn in Northern Ireland this weekend with the opening of a £55m acute hospital in County Londonderry.

The 240-bed Causeway Hospital in Coleraine has taken 11 years to complete and will replace Coleraine Hospital and the Route Hospital in Ballymoney.

Patients will be transferred to the new hospital in a fleet of ambulances, minibuses and taxis over the weekend.

The new facilities include accident and emergency, intensive care, neo-natal and maternity units.

About 300 members of staff from the Route Hospital and more than 700 workers at Coleraine Hospital are moving to the new facility.

I am confident that this hospital will serve the Causeway residents and its many visitors well into the next millennium

Bill Tweed

In addition, there will be about 60 new jobs created in the Causeway Hospital, primarily in nursing and support services.

In 1997, the go-ahead for the Causeway Hospital was given by the then minister for health and social services Tony Worthington.

Work then commenced on a 40-acre site near the Lodge Road roundabout in the town.

The transfer of patients will go on throughout the weekend, beginning on Saturday and finishing on Monday.

It means that Accident and Emergency Department at the new hospital will be open from Sunday 27 May at 0800 BST.

Bill Tweed: Delighted at hospital opening

Bill Tweed, chief executive of the Causeway Health and Social Services Trust, said it would be the most modern hospital in the British Isles.

He said he was pleased to have appointed a new consultant for the Accident and Emergency Department.

"Ten years ago there were 12 consultants within the trust, compared to over 30 consultants today, bringing an improved quality of care."

The Causeway Hospital will have a larger number of outpatient facilities than currently exist, such as a Day Procedures Unit which has the capacity to treat 32 patients daily.

Mr Tweed said there had been "hurdles to jump and difficult periods" during the past 11 years, but said the "prize of the new Causeway Hospital has made it all worthwhile".

"I am confident that this hospital will serve the Causeway residents and its many visitors well into the next millennium," he added.

The former site of the Coleraine Hospital and part of the Route Hospital site will be sold.