New hospital cost goes up (From South Wales Argus)

New hospital cost goes up

4:54pm Monday 20th November 2006

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THE new Local General Hospital for Blaenau Gwent - to be built on part of the former Corus steelworks site at Ebbw Vale - will cost a third more than the original £33 million estimate.

A new price tag of almost £48 million is now attached to the project, due for completion late in 2009, following a review by financial planners.

The hospital will be called Ysbyty'r Aneurin Bevan, after the former Labour MP for Ebbw Vale and architect of the NHS, and it may include some innovative environmentally-friendly features.

The vast majority of the price increase since an outline business case was approved last year, is down to a factor known as optimism bias. This involves the calculation and addition of a sum to the overall cost to cover risks, for instance unforeseen site problems.

Extra costs have also been incurred because this will now be the first hospital in Wales to provide single rooms for all in-patients.

Ysbyty'r Aneurin Bevan may also have a covered garden for in-patients and grass on some of its roofs. Early designs for the hospital, which will occupy an 18-acre site in the West Gate sector of the former steelworks, depict a building with features aimed at blending it as much as possible with the surrounding valley-scape.

It will be the first major development on the Corus site since tinplate manufacturing ended five years ago, and the first of a new generation of hospitals planned for Gwent to be finished.

There will be 107 beds, including 11 for patients with mental health problems as part of a mental health unit, a minor injuries unit, outpatients and therapy departments, a range of diagnostic facilities, and a birth room.

A proposed indoor garden will fill a large central space around the inpatient area at the southern end of the hospital complex, with the aim of providing a visually stimulating, light-filled environment for patients and visitors.

Reclamation of the West Gate site, just south of Ebbw Vale town off the A4046 road, has been completed and more detailed designs are being drawn up. Health bosses hope building work can begin next autumn.

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