Standing on the Corner! . . .

As you will have heard, plans have been drawn up to refurbish the whole of the area that runs from the top to the bottom of Trosnant, up to Rockhill Road and then back up to the actual Clarence Corner.

The actual outline of the scheme is described as the redevelopment of Clarence Corner for mixed use, to include office, residential and commercial use with associated open space, highway works, car parking and remedial works.

Now that description is what I would call spreading your bets. There is nothing that the council would want to do that is not included in those sentences.

The planning application has been submitted to the authority by Broadhall Estates for planning approval under the Town and Country Planning Act of 1990 and the Town and Country Planning (General Development Procedure) Order of 1995.

Of course, a lot of the background work, such as approaching the current owners of the buildings hereabouts, has already been carried out.

Most of the properties currently in use are very old, although of excellent condition.

The main building was, of course, the Clarence Hotel, which has been renovated to a high level, so presumably the rest of the restoration will have to match up to that standard.

It seems that preparation work has already started down at the old Gas Board Yard at the bottom of Trosnant Street.

I am assured that the contractors there are working on all the water courses that meet down at the bottom of the area.

In addition, there were what were called gasometers in the old days but, evidently, are referred to now as gas-holders. They were huge things that used to lift up and down according to the amount of gas stored in them.

This, of course, was before the 1970s introduction of natural gas when it was no longer any need to store gas ready for use. Now that North Sea Gas is running out, I wonder if gas holders will have to be reinstated.

Anyway, according to my informant, they left huge holes in the ground, which had to be filled in - so that accounts for the great number of big lorries that are always arriving at the site.

Any comments or objections to the renovation of the Clarence Corner must be received by the end of September, so it does seem that there is now a real sense of urgency in the council to get on with this scheme which, undoubtedly, would improve that area of the town even further.

THE 20th ANNIVERSARY OF THE GWENT CARDIAC REHABILITATION SERVICE: I was fortunate enough to be invited along to the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Gwent Cardiac Rehabilitation Service and the attendant Trust Fund.

Having been involved in the organisation over the last 12 or more years, it was great to meet up with so many people from the past who had been involved in rehabilitation.

It was Jill Evans, then a staff nurse in the coronary care unit, who first decided to set up a cardiac rehabilitation system. Back then, patients were just sent home after their heart attack or surgery, with no idea how their life should proceed.

Indeed, it was suggested that the best thing to do was to sit in the chair and wait for the next attack; things like taking regular exercise, cutting out smoking and watching the diet were not pushed then.

Jill set up an organisation where ex-patients attended regular sessions, where they were encouraged to exercise according to their needs and had the various facets of their illness explained fully to them.

Gaynor and Ron Colbourne set up Gwent Cardiac Rehabilitation, and undertook to pay Jill's salary while she was setting up the group.

Looking back now, it certainly showed a terrific belief in the concept by the three of them.

THE EVENING'S PROGRAMME: The guests were welcomed by Angela Knott who is the clinical nurse specialist for cardiac services. She introduced Jill as the main speaker to describe the history of the service.

Mr Ron Colbourne, who has been the chairman of the fund since the outset, then outlined the various way that the money had been raised, mainly through the efforts of ex-patients and how the decisions were made as to how to allocate the cash where it was most needed.

The next speaker up was Councillor Alan Morris, who is the present mayor of Newport. He described how he had suffered for years from what he insisted were intense chest pains, which he was certain was caused by indigestion.

It was, of course, angina and a strong warning that all was not well with his heart.

Finally, he had come to meet the team from Rehabilitation who were able to explain how his continuing angina was such a clear warning and should never have been ignored.

He described how he had gone through the whole rehab course, and how it had benefited him and brought him back to full health.

The final speaker for the evening was Dr John Davies, the consultant cardiologist from the Gwent who has supported Jill and her ideas from day one.

In 1994, he officially opened the Cardiac Rehabilitation Centre at St Woolos Hospital, which was another first for Wales. He explained how there were now three hospital based rehabilitation programmes at St Woolos, County Hospital, Panteg, and Caerphilly Miners'.

Partnerships with local leisure and community education centres have led to a widespread network of community-based programmes, which more or less cover the whole of the county.

The value of the service has been recognised with the award of the prestigious Charter Mark Award for excellence in public service on two occasions.

The feeling of everyone at this special occasion was: "Here's To The Next 20 Years."

A LAST THOUGHT ABOUT MY WEEK'S STAY IN HOSPITAL: In recent years there has been a lot of talk about, and cases of, what have been called hospital borne diseases, the chief of which seems to be MRSA.

All of us have heard the most horrifying stories of patients being admitted with the most minor of complaints, and picking up something like MRSA and suffering terribly as a consequence.

It always seemed odd to me why those people unlucky enough to contract the complaint in hospital did not get it while they were in their own homes.

The source of infection, it seemed to me, was the congregation of smokers outside the main entrance to the Gwent. A number of them were obviously in-patients as they were in their dressing gowns.

Visitors, perhaps with traces of the infection on their clothes, had to push through this crowd to get into the hospital, perhaps thereby infecting the patients.

However, soon after my recent admission to Nevill Hall Hospital, I was approached by a male nurse carrying what looked like a number of joss sticks.

The object was to give me my test for MRSA and presumably for the other complaints whose names I can never remember.

These long sticks were then placed up my nostrils, my ears (I think), my mouth and on my groin. Each was placed in a separate canister and the whole taken away for analysis.

As I have heard nothing since then, I am assuming that no infection was found on any part of my body.

Talking to the nurse I queried whether there was a lot of point in carrying out these tests on incoming patients. He amazed me when he told me that 20 percent of those tests taken on newcomers turned out to be positive.

So this means that a fifth of the population is going around carrying this horrible disease, and are unaware of it, yet, it is the hospitals that get all the blame for any outbreak.