Omagh Hospital and Primary Care Complex opens to patients

Image captionThe UK's newest hospital replaces a 118-year-old buildling in County Tyrone

A new £105m hospital opens to patients in County Tyrone on Tuesday.

The Omagh Hospital and Primary Care Complex provides a range of hospital and community healthcare services together in one place.

It replaces the 118-year-old Tyrone County Hospital which will close its doors following the transfer of 29 patients to the new hospital.

Four GP practices, currently based at Omagh Health Centre, will move into the new complex next Monday.

'One-stop shop'

The site will also include community mental health services, podiatry, family planning, community dental, paediatric physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy.

Image captionIt is hoped that patients will benefit from having a range of services under one roof

Image captionFour GP Practices currently based at Omagh Health Centre will transfer to the new hospital next week

The Western Health and Social Care Trust said more than £4.5m has been invested in new equipment and technologies to improve patient care, including a new CT scanner.

Joann McCullagh, the outpatients manager in Omagh, said patients will benefit from having everything under one roof.

"I would anticipate we will be moving very much towards a future 'one-stop shop' approach.

"We will have your GP referrals, you will have all of your physical and clinical aspects of that and you will also have your supporting clinical services, your mental health services, your women and child care services, your GUM [sexual health] services, and all of your expert and very wide-ranging outpatient clinics."

Image captionJoann McCullagh said new services could help to shorten waiting lists

She said the hospital will also be able to provide new services to help tackle waiting lists across Northern Ireland, including orthopaedic and ophthalmology services.

The Tyrone County Hospital, which opened in 1899, lost its acute services in 2009 after the Western Health Trust said it had struggled to recruit staff.

The South West Acute Hospital, which cost £280m, opened in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, in 2012.

The new hospital in Omagh has a 24-hour Urgent Care and Treatment Centre which provides cardiac assessment, a treatment room, x-ray and scans.

A ward area contains 40 single en-suite rooms for a mix of patients in recovery and rehabilitation and patients receiving palliative care.

Image captionThe hospital's assistant director said the opening "marks a new and exciting chapter in the history of health services" in the Western Health Trust