North Antrim Ulster Unionist assembly member, Rev Robert Coulter has called on Northern Ireland Health Minister Des Browne to re-evaluate the case for a community hospital in Ballymena.

The call was prompted after a recent consultative document on acute care left the borough out of the equation.

A member of the Stormont health committee and UUP spokesman on health for the Assembly party, the Rev Coulter said it was "absolutely vital" for the sake of future convalescent care in the borough that Mr Browne re-examined the situation, not just in Ballymena, but right across the entire North Antrim constituency.

He said: "Whilst they are located outside the constituency boundaries, both the Antrim Area and Causeway hospitals provide acute care for the vast majority of people in North Antrim. But the health department, if it is genuine in wanting to develop an ethos of care in the community, needs to think seriously about creating a network of community convalescent hospitals to support the acute services in the Antrim and Causeway."

He said the North Antrim constituents were having to bear the heavy burden medically of the past Conservative Government's rationalisation which saw local community hospitals such as the Waveney in Ballymena, the Route in Ballymoney and Cushendall all axed as well as cuts to the services at the Dalriada in Ballycastle.

"Hopefully Mr Browne and New Labour will realise that a viable policy of 'putting patients first' depends not just on the excellent work done by the acute sector, but also requires back-up from community hospitals. In North Antrim terms, this means a new hospital for Ballymena as well as developing existing services at both the Robinson in Ballymoney and the Dalriada."

He emphasised that people in the mid Antrim region were still left vulnerable in terms of access to minor Accident and Emergency provision.

Backing calls for a new, purpose-built community hospital located in Ballymena could cater for minor operations performed by visiting consultants. He said that whilst he accepted the need for major acute hospitals, they could not be viewed in isolation. "Given the locations of the two acute hospitals which service North Antrim, the constituency does need a series of community convalescent hospitals in major areas of population in support of the Antrim and Causeway.

"Acute and community care must be built around a vision in which health needs are met primarily in the local community. The foundation of any health care policy is that when people are sick, they receive the correct treatment, in the correct place at the correct time, delivered by the correct people," said Rev Coulter.

(SP)