Builders are set for a boost with news this week of a £25m construction project to provide a new health and care centre in Ballymena.

The NI Health Minister Edwin Poots announced the plans to build the centre in the Co Antrim town, and said, that subject to business case approval, the new facility will be built on the site of the Braid Valley Hospital and provide a range of services for the local community.

"Plans for a new health and care centre in the town are almost complete and this is great news for people in Ballymena and across the Northern Trust area.

"The new one stop centre will provide assessment, treatment and provision of care and information to the local population in and around the Ballymena area as well as across the entire Trust area.

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"We are at the final stage of the process and when the business case has been approved by the Department of Finance & Personnel (DFP), work on designing the new facility will begin later this year," he explained.

The new health and care centre will provide a mix of locally accessible acute, primary and community care services to the community as well as other Trust wide services.

The Trust will also be relocating a number of services to the new site in Ballymena.

People will be able to access diagnostic services, acute outpatient clinics, and social and community services under one roof.

"I have said in the past that there is too much work carried out in hospitals that could be dealt with in the community.

"I believe this is the way forward and the multidisciplinary community team which will operate from the new health and care centre will provide support, information and early interventions to the local community," he said, noting that plans to develop the facility at the Braid Valley Hospital are almost complete and set for DFP approval in the autumn.

(BMCC/GK)