A PROPOSAL to build a health and social care 'super-surgery' in Tredegar has been approved for funding by the Welsh Government.

The project - in a town where existing GP premises are described as "outdated" and "not fit for purpose" in a report to go before senior Blaenau Gwent councillors on Wednesday - is likely to cost several millions of pounds.

Funding is dependent upon a business case being developed by Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, and approved by the Welsh Government.

But the aim will be for the centre - to host family doctors and a range of other health and social care services - to be opened within four years.

Formal recognition of its priority in Cardiff Bay is a major step forward for a project that was first proposed more than 10 years ago, for an area with among the highest levels of deprivation and some of the worst health problems in Wales.

The health board is now working with Blaenau Gwent council, the town's GPs and other interested parties to put meat on the bones of the scheme.

The idea was first discussed in 2005 when the a primary care estates strategy was developed for Blaenau Gwent. It proposed a primary care resource centre for Tredegar, to incorporate two GP practices, a pharmacy, outpatient clinics and a base for a range of health and social care staff.

A proposal document was developed in 2009, but the difficult financial climate caused by economic downturn and recession meant that many healthcare projects in Wales and the rest of the UK were put on hold or scrapped.

The difficulties inherent in GP and other primary care services operating from outdated premises have not gone away however. The Blaenau Gwent council report states that the current surgery sites in Tredegar are unsuitable for hosting "multi professional working". There is also no room for expansion.

Such problems mean the premises are "not conducive to deliver modern primary care".

Complicating the situation in Tredegar are difficulties in recruiting GPs.

While the Welsh Government's Train, Work, Live campaign has resulted in all GP training places in Wales being filled this year, its benefits will take some time to filter through.

Meanwhile the problem, particularly in some valleys areas like Tredegar, is increasing. Both of the town's surgeries are operating with too few doctors for the number of patients they have, and the council report calls the sustainability of GP services a "major concern".

A health board report, to go before board members on Wednesday, confirms that notification has been received from the Welsh Government that the Tredegar scheme has been

approved for funding, and subject to the provision of a successful business case, is "to be delivered by 2020-21."

The Tredegar project is one of two in Gwent to be given priority by the health board following a review of its primary care estate.