Debate contribution: Birch Hill Centre for Mental Health
Debate contribution by Mr Alan Chambers on .
- MLA
- Mr Alan Chambers
- Party at the time
- Ulster Unionist Party
- Date
- 18 November 2025
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Adjournment
- Heading
- Birch Hill Centre for Mental Health
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5244979
Read the official Assembly record
Text
There is no doubt that the proposals for the Birch Hill mental health inpatient centre are ambitious, but they are also undoubtedly necessary. Whilst the staff working from the Holywell Hospital and the Ross Thomson unit continue to provide a brilliant service, they do so from facilities that, frankly, have not kept pace with modern requirements. We have heard some of the problems articulated tonight. The scheme proposed for Birch Hill, a new 134-bed unit serving needs ranging from acute mental illness to dementia care and psychiatric intensive care, would also really helpfully bring together a range of services that has long been stretched across ageing facilities. I suspect that there will be political unanimity this evening on the call for the scheme to be progressed. However, we also need to recognise that the expected costs of the scheme are now significantly greater than they once were, and right across the health service and every Department, capital demands exceed the budget envelope available. Since coming into office, the Minister has repeatedly urged the Executive and his MLA colleagues to consider the consequences of their repeatedly allocating below-need levels of funding for the health service. Whilst the Minister, I am sure, will continue to do all that he can to deliver investment and modern facilities right across the Health estate, including the essential Birch Hill centre, regrettably the funding that is needed is simply not being provided to the level that patients and staff require. Members from across the House, if we want Birch Hill to happen, and I believe that most of us do, it cannot rest solely on the shoulders of the Health Minister or the Department of Health. It will take a collective decision by the Executive to prioritise and provide the capital allocations required. Words of support are welcome, but budget decisions are what make buildings rise from the ground. That is why the upcoming Budget from the Department of Finance will be so important. For the sake of patients and staff, I hope that the commitment will be there to allow critical projects such as the Birch Hill Centre for Mental Health to proceed. My colleague Trevor Clarke put forward an interesting solution to the problem of raising the capital needed to build a new facility there. I have to confess, however, to not understanding fully how these things work or what revenue would be raised from the sale of that property. Perhaps the Minister could provide some clarity on whether, if such a sale were to take place, it would be possible to ring-fence the money specifically for providing the new mental health facility, or whether it would simply go into a pot somewhere.
449 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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