Health minister Simon Hamilton visits unique new €2 million dental unit

Northern Ireland Health Minister Simon Hamilton has hailed the new state-of-the-art £2 million dental unit in Antrim as “unique in the province” providing integrated and seamless patient care.

The new Specialist Dental Unit at the Antrim Area Hospital, that includes four orthodontic chairs and two special care dentistry rooms, opened in October last year. The unit brings together the orthodontic, special care dentistry and oral/maxillofacial departments for the first time.

Services that were previously provided at the Braid Valley Hospital in Ballymena and Antrim Hospital Outpatients Department relocated to the new unit.

The minister visited the unit recently, as part of a tour of the hospital, and said: “Northern Ireland’s health service is well known for its innovative approach to patient care and the recent investment in these new facilities is a perfect demonstration of how we can use our resources to ensure the best outcomes for patients.

“The new state-of-the-art Specialist Dental Unit has been designed to put the dental needs of patients foremost. This unit is unique in the province in that it allows these dental services greater flexibility to work together rather than just one team using the facilities at a time. This means that patient care can be integrated and seamless.”

Northern HSC Trust chief executive Tony Stevens added: “Delivering excellent health and social care services today and in the future means not only responding successfully to the challenges faced but also continuing to embrace advances in medicine and technology. These present exciting opportunities which require us to be forward thinking and open to change, in terms of our approach to the development of services and how they are provided to the people we serve.”