THREE major improvement schemes for key services at the Royal Gwent Hospital costing more than £5 million are set to begin later this year.

A much-needed revamp of the emergency department, an upgrade and expansion of the neonatal intensive care unit, and the provision of interim facilities while a vital heart tests suite is replaced, are all due to start or be in place during 2015/16.

But a much-needed Women's Health Unit, also at the Royal Gwent and which Aneurin Bevan University Health Board chiefs had hoped to get underway this year, is among other schemes that have been put back until next year because funding is not available.

Work on the emergency department will focus on improving the capacity and the environment for patients in the 'minors' area, which has gotten increasingly busy in recent years. Attention will also be given to access and provision for the triaging of patients across the whole unit.

The health board wants the work completed by summer next year, and a detailed business case for the work is being developed. The estimated cost is £3m spread over two years.

An extra six cot spaces will be created under the plan for the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit, in recognition of the growing demand for such facilities, and the estimated £1.5m cost of the project there will also deal with a number of environmental issues.

It is hoped that, subject to a business case being developed and approved, this work can be completed by May 2016.

A replacement cardiac catheterisation laboratory is being funded at the Royal Gwent by the Welsh Government, and the aim for 2015/16 is to replace the main equipment.

But cardiologists want a full service to remain in place at the hospital while the work is carried out, due to the existing workload, and this will entail creating a second room in which to continue heart tests. The cost of this will be £500-800,000.

Earlier this month the Argus reported that a Women's Health Unit is being planned at the Royal Gwent, at a cost of £650,000, to address concerns over a lack of capacity, privacy and dignity for patients, and infection control.

This is now unlikely to proceed before 2016/17, and a health board capital programme report also states that a children's assessment unit (£500,000), and a revamp of the Nevill Hall Hospital emergency department (£5m over two years), also cannot go ahead this year because the money is not available.