PLANS are afoot which could see the loss of another ward at Chepstow Community Hospital.

This at a hospital which seems to have been shrinking ever since it first opened its doors in the year 2000.

Back then the development was lauded as the way forward for health care in Wales, housing primary, secondary and community care facilities on one site.

But over the years services have dwindled; the minor injuries unit was removed and many beds have been lost.

Critics have in the past accused Aneurin Bevan University Health Board of running nothing more than a glorified health centre, at great expense to the public purse.

The sting in the tail is that this hospital was the first in Wales to be funded under the Government’s controversial Private Finance Initiative.

The developer received £10 million up front – part-funded by the sale of land occupied by two previous hospitals for housing. In addition, it has received £1.2 million every year since and will continue to do so until 2020.

It is not hard, therefore, to understand why there will be many in Chepstow who feel they had the rough end of a deal which has never quite lived up to its billing.