Western Trust pays out over £400,000 for closed hospital

The former Tyrone County Hospital in Omagh closed its doors in June 2017, but the Western Trust has paid out £410,000 to a security firm to keep the site protected, it can be revealed.

Joe McCusker, Regional Organiser for UNISON Northern Ireland, spoke to Stephen Nolan on BBC Radio Ulster this morning about the issue.

“It’s a staggering amount of money to pay for security of a site in itself with no operations on it. This amounts to around £30,000 a month, nearly a thousand pounds per day, and I don’t think it’s justifiable that the Trust can continue this expenditure on a hospital that has been shut for 18 months.”

It has emerged that high-value equipment remains on the site, which is one of the Trust’s reasons for justifying the round-the-clock security.

“If there’s high-value equipment in there, why isn’t it being used elsewhere in the health service?

“Questions have to be asked in terms of how this was managed. It also brings into question the governance in the Western Trust.”

You can listen to the discussion online here.