A new £350 million hospital to be built near Cwmbran has been welcomed by Caerphilly and Iswlyn AMs Hefin David and Rhianon Passmore.
The Specialist and Critical Care Centre (SCCC) in Llanfrechfa Grange is expected to open in 2022. The proposed new hospital is a key element to the reorganisation of NHS services known as the South Wales Programme.
When built, the new hospital will treat patients who need complex and acute emergency care in the Gwent region – which includes Caerphilly County Borough. This means patients will no longer have to travel to Newport’s Royal Gwent Hospital in an emergency.
Dr David said: “The new specialist critical care centre is most welcome and will provide modern, safe and accessible services.
“When Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr was opened in 2011, it was expected that it would be a local general hospital that would be served by a larger major hospital nearby.
“The announcement by the Welsh Government today turns that vision into reality and will complete the South Wales health care map.
“I will continue to speak to the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board about how this centre will serve the residents of Caerphilly but it will undoubtedly provide a hugely improved service to patients in our community.”
Announcing that he had approved the business case for the new hospital, Welsh Health Secretary Vaughan Gething AM said: “I know there has been a high level of public and political interest in this project and after careful consideration I’m delighted to have approved the full business case for the SCCC. I will now release capital funding from 2016/17 to 2021/22 to build what will be a state of the art hospital in Gwent.
“The SCCC has had strong support locally and through public consultation on the South Wales Programme. I am confident that bringing together complex and more acute services on one hospital site will allow the local health board to secure a range of benefits which will improve the quality of care for patients.
“Our drive to improve health care in Wales never stops, and nor will it. I am determined that we plan and develop services on a regional as well as a local basis to benefit the population of south Wales as a whole. The SCCC is a positive step which will benefit many patients for years to come.”
Ms Passmore added: “I very much welcome this important and significant announcement from the Cabinet Secretary Vaughan Gethin.
“At a time of severely constricted public spending and large cuts to the Welsh budget this £350 million investment is fantastic news. This investment will engender faster access to care by reducing bottle necks in the hospital system and enable more sustainable and specialised acute services.
“Importantly, it will enable dedicated recruitment and retention in specialist areas. This is a very important and significant investment which will truly enable improvements in state of the art health care for the constituents of Islwyn and beyond.”
So. we in Caerffili are now set to travel even further for our health care than we do now. Not long ago we had a very good hospital in the town. This has been replaced by a clinic in Ystrad Fawr and all emergencies were directed to the Royal Gwent. The new hospital is even further away, by several miles. I do not laud this as progress, we are going backward.
Both Plaid and Labour have connived to insist Caerffili is in Gwent, it is not and never has been. The implications are more than a matter of address, though the post office still regards our town as being in Mid Glamorgan, it is of vital import to our services. Our law enforcement, courts and health care are now all based in Gwent. It is high time that we campaigned to be recogised as a Glamorgan town. At least then we will have a fully functioning hospital (UHW at Heath) along with police station and court a few miles away.