Plans to build a new “state-of-the-art” medical centre in Llanbradach have been unveiled at a public consulatation.
The new centre, which is earmarked to be built on the former church hall site on Pencerrig Street, will house the village’s two existing GP practices and serve around 5,000 patients.
A public consultation event was held at the Pensioners Hall in Llanbradach on Wednesday August 16 – the first opportunity for the plans to be shown to the public.
The scheme has been mooted for more than a decade and the health centre will replace out-of-date surgeries which exist at present.
However, the project has been beset by delays with previous start and completion dates coming and going.
Apollo Capital Project Developments, a Welsh company with a history in delivering primary care schemes, was announced by the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board last year as the contractor to develop the long-awaited health centre.
Housing association United Welsh, which bought the site from the Church of Wales, will also build ten flats as part of the project.
The Aneurin Bevan University Health Board is due to discuss the scheme at a meeting next month to agree funding.
Plaid Cymru councillor Colin Mann, who represents the Llanbradach ward, has been active in the campaign to build a new medical centre in the village with fellow councillor Robert Gough.
Cllr Mann said: “Rob and myself, for far too long, have been telling people that progress is being made and this is the first evidence that people will see that things are progressing.”
A spokeswoman for Aneurin Bevan University Health Board said: “The plans at this stage are not final and they will go to the board in September to progress to the next stage.”
All we need now is Doctors to work there
It shows how backward we have become. A hundred years ago there would not have been a 10 year period of marking time. Doctors surgeries, hospitals and schools were planned and built in a fraction of this time.
As the Councilllors say “for far too long they have been telling people progress is being made” – shows that they lack much influence,so not an admission I would be making in their position.
In fairness to councillors they have to deal with the Aneurin Brvan Health Board – a self serving committee that wants to make health provision based on their opinion. Better if it was abolished and replaced with a body that used available funds to base health care on local need.
This would include asking the people who pay for it – that is the taxpayer – which services they regarded as essential. Think about this, if ten years ago we had been asked if we wanted a £172 Million ‘hospital’ built without an A&E or doctors would we have voted for this? If we had been asked if we wanted all our local hospitals closed and a big one built at Croesyceiliog, would we have voted for that?
That certainly seems a better proposition – the current situation definitely doesn’t appear fit for purpose
Agreed!