![\"Health](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0_Suicide-Prevention-inquiry.jpg\")
<\/p>\nHe said that such a unit would provide specialist inpatient mental health care, allowing mothers to stay with their babies while receiving treatment, and such an approach is recognised as best practice.<\/p>\n
22:01, 30 Apr 2026Updated 22:06, 30 Apr 2026<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Health Minister Mike Nesbitt(Image: Liam McBurney\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n
Northern Ireland\u2019s first dedicated mother and baby unit should be open no later than 2029, the health minister has said.<\/p>\n
Mike Nesbitt said it had been a personal priority to address the \u201cunacceptable\u201d lack of such a unit in Northern Ireland, making it the only part of the UK without one.<\/p>\n
He said that such a unit would provide specialist inpatient mental health care, allowing mothers to stay with their babies while receiving treatment, and such an approach is recognised as best practice.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: ‘Mums in Northern Ireland deserve access to the same maternal mental health support my wife had’<\/a>READ MORE: Hospital parking charges in Northern Ireland to continue after Assembly backs delay<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIt supports recovery, protects infant wellbeing, and strengthens the earliest bonds between mother and child, bonds which are critical for lifelong health and development,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He added that, after asking officials to assess all options for potential sites, that a permanent mother and baby unit would be established at a site at Belfast City Hospital.<\/p>\n He said a scoping exercise had \u201cconfirmed\u201d that alternative locations or construction approaches would not deliver \u201ca<\/p>\n materially shorter timeline or better value for money\u201d.<\/p>\n He said in some cases they would involve \u201cadditional costs, staffing pressures and increased clinical risk\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cMost importantly, they would not offer the same level of safety and assurance for mothers and babies,\u201d he said on Thursday.<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately, no agreement was possible with clinicians on a temporary\/interim solution. However, I have secured a significant shortening of the timeframe for construction, by at least two years, meaning the unit should open no later than 2028\/29.<\/p>\n \u201cThe outline business case for the facility has been approved at trust board level and submitted to the Strategic Planning and Performance Group.<\/p>\n \u201cDepartmental Health Estates has confirmed that preparatory work is complete and as the commissioner\u2019s letter of support has been issued, a design team can be appointed immediately and the project can proceed to the next stage of delivery.<\/p>\n \u201cThis represents a significant step forward from commitment to delivery.\u201d<\/p>\n For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here<\/a> and sign up to our daily newsletter<\/a> here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He said that such a unit would provide specialist inpatient mental health care, allowing mothers to stay with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":567871,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-567870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}