THERE is an "urgent need" to get Gwent's proposed Specialist and Critical Care Centre (SCCC) up and running, to boost the area's healthcare, says the chairman of the health board.

David Jenkins told the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board annual general meeting that a conclusion must be reached on a project that has been more than a decade in the planning.

Last week, health secretary Vaughan Gething told Torfaen AM Lynne Neagle he hopes to be the last to have to make a decision on the project, and foresaw receiving advice on it from officials this autumn.

"We are confident we will get a decision from the health secretary sometime soon. There's an urgent need to get this hospital up and running," said Mr Jenkins.

The final business case for the SCCC was submitted to the Welsh Government last October, and subjected to an independent review this summer.

Further work is being done following that review, and health board chief executive Judith Paget said a second submission will soon go to Welsh Government.

The AGM is an opportunity to celebrate health board achievements, and Mrs Paget highlighted a range of work, including health checks for thousands of people in parts of Blaenau Gwent and Caerphilly through the Living Well, Living Longer programme, the roll-out of community glaucoma clinics, and the completion of stroke service reorganisation.

Mr Jenkins said success must be celebrated "in the context of a clear recognition that there is a lot more to be done."

"What we have achieved is still very much work in progress," he said.

"Far, far too many people are waiting far, far too long for elective treatments.

"Far, far too many people are waiting far, far too long in our A&E departments, often in pain and worried.

"We need to do, and are doing, something about it. But we still have quite a way to go before we can truly say we are living up to our aspirations of being the 'best in class'."

Despite that, he added: "We can be pleased and proud that we are by some measure the best health board in Wales, looking at performance and financial observance - we don't spend money we haven't got.

"We are delivering better than our comparative health boards throughout Wales."

GWENT'S health board continues to focus its efforts on recruiting and retaining nursing staff said Mrs Paget, amid shortages affecting Wales and much of the rest of the UK.

Asked by Royal College of Nursing Wales senior officer Jane Carroll what the health board is doing to address recruitment and retention issues, Mrs Paget told the AGM that while it tries to recruit locally whenever it can, it has "found an inability over the past 12-18 months to recruit in Wales all the nurses we need."

As well as the rest of the UK, nurses have been recruited from Europe and the Philippines, and Mrs Paget warned that there will be a reliance on overseas recruits in the short term, while increased numbers of nurses in training come through the system.

She said the health board has a clear recruitment and retention strategy, and is committed to abide by the Nurse Staffing Act that defines safe nursing levels on wards.

“We are also putting initiatives in place to make sure we retain our current nursing staff and we’re encouraging retired nurses and those who’ve left the profession to return to nursing with the health board," said Mrs Paget.

“We have an excellent induction programme and development opportunities for our nurses, and we will continue to focus our efforts on recruiting and retaining nurses here in Gwent.”