Unison welcome for £400k investment in mental health unit

AN INVESTMENT of £400,000 for the provision of acute mental health services at the Tyrone and Fermanagh Hospital in Omagh has been welcomed by the local branch of Unison.

Health Minister, Robin Swann, visited the town on Friday last to make the announcement. He also met with staff and service users.

He once more expressed a commitment to providing a new £36 million acute mental health unit as part of phase two of the Omagh Hospital and Primary Care Complex.

However, the Minister said that this project going ahead was dependent on funding becoming available.

Andy McKane, joint chairman of the Omagh and Fermanagh branch of the health union, Unison, said the visit of Robin Swann was important in keeping the pressure on in terms of the promised new acute mental health unit.

“This was a chance for Mr Swann to meet the frontline staff who have worked tirelessly throughout Covid to act as a morale boost for our dedicated staff.

“We in the West feel that we are sometimes forgotten. Moreover, this is the case in Omagh, which is the geographic centre of the Trust area and the most accesisble to all service users.

“This visit gave me the chance to display the hard work carried out in Omagh and hopefully go some way towards speeding up the promised new mental health and addictions unit which we have been promised in phase two of the Omagh Hospital and Primary Care Complex.

“We are all too aware of the effect that Covid has had on our mental health and demand for addiction help has also increased since the start of the pandemic.

“We in Unison will keep up the fight for better healthcare provision in the West and especially in Omagh.”

The visit by Mr Swann to Omagh came following the announcement of a progress update on the Northern Ireland Mental Health Action Plan.

It contains 38 actions which it is hoped will improve mental health services and deal with the mental health response to the coronavirus crisis.”