The £172million Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr has been officially handed over to the Aneurin Bevan Health Board.
Building firm BAM Construction has now completed work on the 255-bed hospital. The health board will now undertake preparations for the arrival of new patients – expected in about two months’ time.
Work began on the site near Ystrad Mynach back in 2008 and despite setbacks such as cold winter months pushing the project behind schedule, the new hospital has been built on time and on budget.
The new hospital will bring a range of services under one roof such as in-patient, day care, diagnostics, maternity services, and non-critical emergency care services.
There will also be a a mental health unit, a dedicated stroke unit, children’s outpatient clinic, a range of rehabilitation facilities, and MRI and CT scanning facilities.
The hospital will host the community dental service and a GP out-of-hours service.
However, concern has been expressed that its A&E unit will be a non-critical one.
Blackwood councillor Nigel Dix recently labelled the building a “glorified” cottage hospital.
He told Wales Online: “There will not be a full-scale accident and emergency department, and many operations will not be possible. The doctor agreed with me that it could be little more than a glorified cottage hospital.”
South Wales East AM Lindsay Whittle has also said he will be writing to the health board to establish exactly what services the new hospital will offer.
Seems strange that only now people seem to realise there is no full A & E. This has been known all along and discussed in the periodic Community Forum wheree people have been kept informed of the facilities.
Cllr. Dix seems to have a good point. Without 24 A & E this hospital does not fulfil the role that was hoped for, indeed expected, by the people it is supposed to serve.
Once upon a time, the miners of this town, provided a superb hospital that could both deal with emergency admissions and offer excellent surgical facilities.
This hospital has been deliberately run down, over many years, and is to close. Many people, including me, have been hoodwinked into thinking that the new hospital at Ystrad Mynach would provide all the services of the Miners Hospital in a modern setting. It will actually not be able to do so and I belive a serious re-think is required.
This is not good enough and is not what was promised.
Why has the balloon gone up now just before hand-over. Who are the people who went to the Community Forum and knew that the A & E was just a glorified cuts and bruises department. From talking to people in Caerphilly it is obvious that the type of hospital they are expecting is nothing like the one they will be getting. Now it seems that the wards will not be given names of the collieries as was in Caerphilly Miners but just numbers! And so it goes on – wake up residents of Caerphilly before it is too late. Many people knew this was not to be the hospital they were led to believe but their protests have fallen on deaf years. A public meeting is called for asap.
The `People` of Caerphilly had little or no say in what was proposed and then enacted by the health authority in the case of the new hospital.
The health authority will say they consulted `The Public` on the plans which were proposed, they did in fact hold meetings at which attendees could pose questions, but there was little or no, `meaningful` consultation with the public, therefore any shortcomings, and any `missing` facilities is firmly down to the Chief Executive of the Health authority, its members, and some local politicians,the main hope now is the Lindsay Whittle will pursue this issue as he has promised to do.
Re:Ystrad Fawr hospital at Ystrad Mynach. How many fatalities will occur with no proper A&E. dept. anymore. All the other hosptials are overstretched already and the extra time it takes to get to these other hospitals will surely cost peoples lives. Are they trying to erase the memory of all the miners that paid in hard earned money so ordinary people could be cared for. Caerphilly Miners was a well loved hospital and as such should not be forgotten.
As Yvonne Davies said "wake up people of Caerphilly before it is too late"
The only people who can now influence changes on the Aneurin Bevan Health Board, are Assembly Members Jeff Cuthbert and Lindsay Whittle, working together and putting aside party politics, and convince the Boards Members and Chief Executive that they are not providing the level of health care demanded by the citizens of the area covered by this state of the art facility,in fact, without proper A&E provision the `hospital` will become simply a `dormitory` medical care unit.
Article from ABHB. Better services by far compaired to current provision for Caerffili: –
THREE years in the building, Gwent’s newest hospital will be handed over to the NHS today, ahead of its opening to patients in November.
The pictures here show how the distinctive £172million Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr has been developed on a site just outside Ystrad Mynach, since work began in autumn 2008.
Contractor BAM Construction will hand the building over to Aneurin Bevan Health Board, so it can be made ready to take its first patients in around two months.
The hospital – the biggest single NHS project in Gwent in 40 years – will house more than 250 beds, and will trigger a major change in provision of secondary care services for patients across Caerphilly county borough.
The area’s existing hospitals, including Caerphilly District Miners’, will close and the new hospital will provide a wider range of services than previously available in the area, including a range of surgical procedures, such as orthopaedic surgery and cataract operations.
For many patients in places such as Blackwood and Newbridge, outpatient appointments, diagnostic tests and some operations that would previously have meant going to the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport, will soon be provided at Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr.
All patients will have single rooms, and car parking for several hundred vehicles will be tucked away underneath the building, with a system designed to direct patients and visitors to spaces nearest the departments they require.
The hospital will also include a 24-hour emergency centre, mental health unit, midwife-led maternity unit, dedicated stroke unit, children’s outpatient clinic, and a range of rehabilitation facilities, including a hydrotherapy pool.
MRI and CT scanning will be available, and the hospital will host the community dental service and the GP out-of-hours service.
Health board chairman David Jenkins said BAM and other contractors involved were to be congratulated for their hard work in ensuring the handover was happening on time and within budget.
“This has been a really exciting project and a considerable amount of planning has gone into the design to ensure the hospital will meet the needs of local people,” he said.
I think we should have a 24hr A and E and it should be for serious cases not just cuts and bruises i knew nothing of there being no A and E and having children who are very ill with chronic asthma, when they have an attack I must get them to A and E ASAP and i end up going to Merther because they are the closest to us, all that time is very frightening watching your child gasping for air. I am a bit disappointed if they wont treat serious cases in A and E like this at the new hospital because we live just down the road which would have been a god send for my children and time wouldn't be wasted watching them struggle for there breath! Please reconsider i BEG! I understand alot of time and money has gone into this hospital but it would be sad if it didn't help people around here that needs the help in serious cases like this and others.