Debate contribution: Carrickmore Health Centre: Capital Investment
Debate contribution by Mr Mike Nesbitt on .
- MLA
- Mr Mike Nesbitt
- Party at the time
- Ulster Unionist Party
- Date
- 8 April 2025
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Carrickmore Health Centre: Capital Investment
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4919730
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I thank the Member for his ongoing interest. I am aware of the frustrations and concerns being raised locally, and he is getting those in his office. I met the GP partners and their staff at the health centre in Carrickmore on 4 December last year. I fully recognise that there is a huge need to invest in primary care to support the reform agenda and stabilise primary care. Capital investment is required to modernise and maintain that service and ensure that the estate is fit for purpose to enable service delivery. Since financial year 2018-19, around £38 million of capital has been invested, through the primary care infrastructure development programme, in GP premises, including investment in accommodation for primary care and multidisciplinary team purposes. Carrickmore is a large practice with five GPs, practice support staff and approximately 10,000 patients, but its growing size means that it now operates out of a space that is below its capacity requirements and, indeed, below the Department of Health's recommended schedules of accommodation for a practice of that size. Approximately £70,000 has been invested in the existing premises in the 2024-25 financial year, but that, of course, is only an interim solution to address immediate pressures. Work has also commenced to address the longer-term needs of the practice, and that is potentially in the form of a new build. Initial engagement commenced in October last year between my Department, the Western Trust and the Carrickmore practice, and they have begun to scope the project together. It will be subject, of course, to the usual business case approvals. Timing will be dependent on the outcome of that process and, of course, approval of funding through the Department's overarching capital plan. I am keen that we move towards a new build for Carrickmore.
298 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.02 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.81).
- No identity-based framing was identified (1.00).
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.02 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.01 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.01 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.01 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.01 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.81 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.02 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 1.00 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.00 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-related subject | 1.00 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
| Parades, bonfires and commemorations | 0.00 |
| Irish language, Ulster-Scots and language policy | 0.00 |
| Sport (including the GAA), the arts and cultural bodies | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:21 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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