April 2025
Our campaign to raise awareness around domestic and sexual abuse among staff was highly commended in the Northern Ireland Hummingbird Awards. The 16-day campaign sought to highlight not just the scale of abuse, but also the stigma that can surround the issue.
We became the first HSC Trust in the region to be accredited by Autism NI and receive an Impact Award in recognition of our work to ensure a number of services across our Trust are autism-friendly.
Staff at The Rowan Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) in Antrim welcomed the Justice Minister and Health Minister to highlight the
strong partnership working involved in supporting victims and survivors of sexual abuse. The centre is managed by the Trust and provides services 24/7, 365 days per year.
Our Connect North social prescribing service celebrated its 2,000th referral. The service helps to connect and signpost people to resources and services that can support their health and wellbeing, and help them stay better connected within their own communities.
May 2025
Northern Trust staff supported regional colleagues to complete the rollout of encompass across HSC. The digital patient record system is now in place across all five health trusts and represents a landmark transformation for health and social care in Northern Ireland.
Our Macmillan Unit at Antrim Area Hospital was reaccredited with the Macmillan Quality Environment Mark in recognition of staff’s commitment to meeting the palliative care needs of patients. The unit opened in 2011 and provides 12 specialist inpatient beds for end-of-life care in a person-centred setting.
Residents and staff at Lisgarel residential home in Larne celebrated 50 years with a trip down memory lane, creating their own memory book to mark the special milestone.
The Trust’s Board submitted its recommendation on the future of general surgery services within the Trust to the Department of Health. The Board approved a recommendation to centralise emergency general surgery at Antrim Area Hospital while the majority of elective general surgery (planned surgery and procedures) would be provided at Causeway Hospital.
June 2025
Nursing colleagues were recognised at the Royal College of Nursing’s Northern Ireland Nurse of the Year awards with nine staff nominated in seven different categories. The Trust came away with three wins on the night, including the Rising Star award, Healthcare Support Worker award, and Public Health award, as well as five runner-up awards and one highly commended.
Our Corporate Communications team scooped a top industry award for its ‘Well at Work’ staff newsletter. The monthly e-zine, which was introduced in September 2024, won the PRCA DARE award for Best Employee Engagement. The newsletter provides staff with information and signposting to a wealth of health and wellbeing resources, and is closely aligned to the Trust’s Staff Health, Wellbeing and Inclusion Strategy.
Construction on our Alongside Midwifery-Led Unit at Antrim Area Hospital got underway. The £5.7m building project will create three additional birthing suites, separate from the hospital’s main maternity ward, giving women in the Northern Trust area parity with the rest of the region. The new unit is scheduled for completion in May 2026.
In a first for Northern Ireland, operating theatres in Antrim Area Hospital are using portable cylinders for anaesthesia in a move that is significantly reducing the theatres’ carbon footprint. The pilot project means that clinicians can use the exact amount of gas required rather than relying on a central supply system that can result in significant wastage. The next phase of the project will see portable cylinders rolled out to operating theatres in Causeway, Whiteabbey and Mid Ulster hospitals, which will eventually allow the central manifold supply to be decommissioned.
July 2025
Our Trust was selected as one of only eight sites in the UK – and the only one in Northern Ireland – to receive funding to support the expansion of a pioneering project designed to support infant mental health and emotional wellbeing. The project will trial the Alarm Distress Baby Scale (referred to as ADBB), an innovative baby observation tool developed in Denmark thanks to funding from The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, established by the Prince and Princess of Wales, in partnership with the Institute of Health Visiting.
A population health initiative aimed at supporting people at risk of developing diabetes celebrated success with more than 1,500 people from the Northern Trust area completing the prevention programme. Delivered by specialist health coaches, the programme supports people to make lifestyle changes to help prevent or delay the onset of Type 2 diabetes.
Our Day Opportunities Service celebrated 20 years of enriching the lives of adults with a learning disability by ensuring they can live life to the fullest and achieve their true potential. Over the past two decades it has helped to transform the lives of people living in the Northern Trust area. Our #OpportunitiesForAll campaign shines a spotlight on the inspiring stories of service users and their families who have been supported by the service through the years.
August 2025
Our specialist dental team based at Antrim Area Hospital were recognised for their pioneering work during the Covid pandemic. They received the June Nunn Award from the Irish Society of Disability and Oral Health for the innovative work they did in response to the pandemic when patients couldn’t have extractions carried out under general anaesthetic.
Causeway Hospital Radio entered the digital era with the launch of its new smartphone app. The move has made it even easier for patients and their loved ones to tune in, offering them a new way to connect with each other during hospital stays. The service relies on a team of volunteers who have embraced the new technology.
Inniscoole Day Centre in Newtownabbey celebrated its 50th anniversary in style with a garden party and special tree-planting event, attended by the Mayor of Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council.
September 2025
We said goodbye to our outgoing Chief Executive Jennifer Welsh who held the top post in our Trust for five and a half years before moving on to become Chief Executive of the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust.
We became the first HSC Trust in the region to pilot the use of body-worn cameras in our Emergency Department. Senior staff in Antrim Area Hospital ED took part in the 12-week trial following a public consultation.
We were also the first Trust in Northern Ireland to use an AI-enhanced algorithm to support clinicians reading X-rays. The Boneview project helps to identify acute fractures, effusions and dislocations in patients from the age of two, providing more efficient and accurate diagnostics for our community, and significantly reducing the margin for error.
We celebrated success around our investment in same day emergency care at Causeway Hospital with the news that our acute ambulatory unit had exceeded its initial target by more than two-fold in its first year of operation. The unit opened in April 2024 to provide same day emergency care for suitable patients, helping them to avoid a long wait in the Emergency Department or a hospital stay. The initial target was to see 160 patients each month but the unit regularly sees more than 400 patients each month.
October 2025
Suzanne Pullins, formerly the Trust’s Executive Director of Nursing, was appointed Interim Chief Executive of our Trust in October 2025. Suzanne has spent her entire career working in Health and Social Care, starting her nursing career with the Northern Trust more than 40 years ago.
Health Minister Mike Nesbitt visited Whiteabbey Hospital to mark the official opening of the Rapid Diagnosis Centre (RDC). The specialist clinic was established in 2022 to help reduce cancer diagnosis times and improve patient outcomes. Starting as a pilot accepting GP referrals, the service has expanded over time and now sees patients from right across Northern Ireland who benefit from co-ordinated examinations and investigations based on their needs, all within a one-stop setting.
We marked five years of Care Opinion in our Trust, reflecting on more than 3,000 stories of real-life experiences shared with us by patients, service users and their families. The online platform invites people to share their experiences of using health and social care services, with their feedback helping us to identify areas for learning and improvement, as well as celebrating the work of our staff.
Our laboratory team celebrated unprecedented success at the Institute of Biomedical Science (IBMS) Congress held in Birmingham. Recognised as the UK’s leading forum for pathology innovation, the event is the biggest of its kind for biomedical scientists and laboratory staff.
The Trust had five entries accepted in the highly competitive poster competition, and in the end came away with two overall awards.
November 2025
Staff in our renal unit at Antrim Area Hospital marked a special milestone as the service celebrated its 25-year anniversary. The service started as a single bay in the hospital in 1995 before moving to a purpose-built centre in 2000 where it currently supports more than 300 patients living in the Northern Trust area.
A new bereavement support room, in memory of Noah McAleese, was opened at Causeway Hospital by the McAleese family and the Health Minister Mike Nesbitt. Noah tragically died in a farming accident in 2022, when he was aged just two. The new space, known as the Infinity Room after Noah’s love of Toy Story, provides a quiet space for families to spend time together with their loved ones in the final moments, or after they have passed.
We are proud to be leading the way in nuclear medicine thanks to a new multi-functional scanner – one of only two in Northern Ireland. The gamma camera which is in operation at Antrim Area Hospital combines multiple diagnostic capabilities in a single device, enabling healthcare professionals to assess patients’ conditions with unprecedented precision.
Health Minister Mike Nesbitt officially opened our MRI unit at Causeway Hospital. The new scanner, which is commissioned to deliver 4,000 scans each year, means patients no longer have to travel to Antrim as their diagnostics and assessment can now be done on the Causeway site.
December 2025
A 93-year-old service user from Cookstown and former nurse, Ethel Glasgow was the winner of our corporate Christmas card competition. Her hand drawn winter scene with a robin red breast was a firm favourite with the judges.
Our neonatal unit at Antrim Area Hospital became the first in Northern Ireland to receive gold accreditation from the Bliss Baby Charter. The Bliss Baby Charter is a detailed framework which helps neonatal units assess and audit the service they provide to babies and families, and is a key tool in delivering excellent family centred care and evidencing the positive difference it makes.
We partnered with the Pets As Therapy charity to introduce a new initiative for our patients. Volunteer dogs Pickle, Charlie and Bailey visited patients in the Macmillan Unit at Antrim Area Hospital and those who were being cared for within the stroke service. The research-backed therapeutic initiative brings comfort to patients during their hospital stay, particularly those who may be missing their own four-legged companions.
Our maternity service became the first in the region to achieve autism-friendly accreditation thanks to the work of staff to support autistic women throughout their pregnancy journey. The team was also shortlisted for a UK-wide Royal College of Midwives award for their work in this area.
January 2026
Working with Northern Ireland Chest, Heart and Stroke, we successfully launched Prescribe A Mile, a series of walking trails in the Causeway Coast and Glens. The population health initiative is aimed at encouraging people to stay active to boost their health and wellbeing, and stay well for longer.
We received the good news that our Trust had maintained its Silver Investors in People (IIP) status following a successful reaccreditation process that saw more than 4,000 members of staff share their views – the biggest response to a staff survey we’ve ever had.
The Trust’s Recovery College marked a decade of success of supporting wellbeing in the community. The college delivers a range of free mental health and wellbeing courses that have been coproduced and delivered by people with both lived and learned experiences. Since it was established in 2015, more than 5,000 students have attended the college.
Staff came together to help shape the development of our new Carers’ Strategy. The strategy, which went out to public consultation in March 2026, has been shaped by the feedback of local carers who have shared their lived experiences to help prioritise areas of focus for the Trust in supporting family carers.
February 2026
Staff at Causeway Hospital celebrated the opening of a new sensory space in the hospital’s Emergency Department. The idea for the project came from ED Consultant Fiona O’Neill after the birth of her daughter Gracie, who has Down’s syndrome and required open-heart surgery at just three-months-old. Featuring soothing lighting, calming projections and a range of visual and tactile elements, the bespoke space offers a welcome alternative away from the noise and activity of the main area.
Staff working in the community mental health team moved into new bespoke premises at Carrickfergus Health Centre. Archway Community Mental Health Service has brought teams together under the one roof and provides assessment, diagnosis and treatment to people in the local community. The building was officially opened by the Health Minister Mike Nesbitt.
We became the first Trust to offer a specialist service for children diagnosed with the genetic condition Familial Hypercholesterolaemia (FH). It’s one of the most commonly inherited conditions where an altered gene causes high blood cholesterol.
During a visit to Causeway Hospital, Health Minister Mike Nesbitt praised staff for the progress made on transforming and modernising services for the local population. Ahead of the hospital’s 25th anniversary, the Minister hailed the Trust’s progress on delivering its Vision for Causeway Hospital, recognising the significant investment in the site over recent years.
We reached a major milestone in our Trust, with the number of people downloading the My Care app topping the 70,000 mark. My Care allows people to take greater control of their healthcare, giving them access to their individual patient record including appointments and medication information, as well as some test results. We are also the first Trust to offer new mums proxy access to their baby’s digital care record, meaning they have access to their little one’s health information from birth.
March 2026
Construction got underway on the new Macmillan Information and Support Centre on the Antrim Area Hospital site. The £3.5m centre will provide support services to people living with a cancer diagnosis and their families and will also offer specific services for young cancer patients.
Trust staff rolled up their sleeves to plant 1,000 trees on unused land at Holywell Hospital in Antrim. The new tree-planting scheme is a joint initiative with a number of sponsors and charities, including Trees On The Land, and will see 7,000 native trees planted on Trust land over the next seven years. It’s part of the Trust’s sustainability strategy and its commitment to supporting a net zero health estate.
Larne man Alan Morton was 15 years old when he received a kidney transplant and 50 years after the pioneering surgery, staff in Antrim Area Hospital’s renal unit had a special celebration to mark Alan’s successful transplant milestone and recognise the life-changing impact of organ donation.
We celebrated two decades of our rural healthcare team who have been delivering specialist support and services to farmers and rural residents over the last 20 years. Many of our Trust’s rural pilot projects have since been adopted as regional initiatives including the Farm Families Health Check Programme, a rural men’s group, and Farmers’ Choir NI.
The Board of the Northern Trust approved the permanent use of body-worn camera in Antrim Area Hospital’s Emergency Department, following a successful 12-week trial between September and December 2025. The Board also agreed to introduce the body-worn cameras for staff working in Causeway Hospital’s Emergency Department. The initiative is aimed at helping to address violence and aggression towards staff. We marked World Social Work Day by celebrating and recognising the enormous contribution of social workers in our Trust. Throughout the year, our teams have been involved in outreach work with local schools, where pupils attended a social work taster event. Pupils had the opportunityto meet with social workers and gain valuable insights into this rewarding career path.
Our Chair’s Awards saw staff come together for an evening of recognition and celebration. The awards event showcased the very best of Team North, recognising the difference staff make to the lives of so many in our local community.