New women’s unit at Gwent

The project, which will cost £660,000, is expected to deliver a range of benefits for patients, as well as saving Aneurin Bevan University Health Board more than £300,000 a year in running costs.

As well as creating the capacity to carry out more than 1,200 extra procedures - including colposcopies and smear tests - a year, the new unit will allow for the modernisation of services for women from Newport, south Torfaen and south Monmouthshire that the health board considers vital ahead of the opening of the Specialist and Critical Care Centre at Llanfrechfa in 2019.

The current unit shares space with vascular services, a situation that is no longer sustainable.

Existing accommodation does not meet the minimum standards required by Cervical Screening Wales, which commissions and provides funding for colposcopy services, as it is no longer used exclusively for female patients, and waiting areas, changing rooms and clinical rooms are shared.

A health board report as part of its integrated medium term plan states that with both services competing for a very limited amount of space, patients' privacy and dignity is being "severely compromised."

The unit also fails to meet guidelines for best practice in outpatient hysteroscopy, a procedure involving the examination of the inside of the uterus.

The report also states that the above issues increase the risk of infection as both services carry out invasive procedures, and the health board's infection control teams have instructed that after every session in the shared treatment room, all equipment is removed and the room is deep cleaned.

The situation also prevents further modernisation of clinical outpatient services, a development considered "essential" to their sustainability, and medical staff training in such cramped conditions is very difficult.

The health board hopes to complete work on the new unit this year.