BREAST services for Gwent patients may be based on a single site in future, as part of a health board vision for a centre of excellence in treatment and care.

Firm plans are yet to be drawn up, and no hospital has been earmarked to host the centre.

But the results of early stage public engagement on the centre of excellence idea are positive.

Currently, breast services are provided at the Royal Gwent and Nevill Hall Hospitals but they face a number of challenges, not least difficulty in recruiting and retaining staff.

This is a Wales-wide issue, a consequence being longer waiting times and a failure to meet national guidelines, and standards expected by Welsh Government for people suspected of having - or confirmed with - breast cancer.

Clinic space is restricted too, with little opportunity to redesign to improve privacy, dignity and experience for patients.

With split-site services and the lack of space, patients often need to attend several times for tests and other procedures that should need a single visit.

Extra clinics and enhanced training for staff are among the measures taken to ease these difficulties, and some Gwent patients have attended clinics in Bristol, funded by Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, to tackle waiting list backlogs.

But the service remains “fragile” according to a health board report. Specialists are looking at how best the situation might be improved, whilst being developed as an “exemplar” in Wales.

The health board is examining the centre of excellence idea, to provide a one-stop experience for patients to, as the report states, “quickly identify, diagnose and treat breast cancer, in line with national expectation.”

Such a centre would provide the opportunity to quickly assess and screen out those who do not need further treatment.

Health board associate director of engagement Claire Harding, whose team carried out the early stage public engagement, said there was “general support” for the single centre idea, and an acceptance that travel times for patients would increase. But it was recognised too, that fewer trips would be required.

Chairman David Jenkins said the clinical preference appears to be for a centre at Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr, near Ystrad Mynach, but the health board has not settled on a preferred site.

He stressed too, that no decision has been made by the board on whether a single-site solution is the right approach.