RETAINING part of the existing Tredegar Hospital is "crucial" to gaining support for the planned multi-million pound health and wellbeing centre for the town, says a health board report.

An outline business case (OBC) - which puts a £15.7m price tag on the project - has been drawn up by Aneurin Bevan University Health Board as part of the process of securing approval and financial backing from the Welsh Government.

The OBC report states that a complete new-build on the existing hospital site - a different option to that being recommended by the health board - offers the best overall value for money.

But the only difference between that and the health board's preferred option, known as option three, which board members will be asked to ratify on Wednesday, is that the latter retains a small element of the existing Tredegar Hospital in the form of its original entrance block.

This "is seen as crucial from the perspective of local history and heritage, ie the “birth-place” of the NHS", states the OBC report.

"It is very unlikely that key stakeholders would support an option that demolished the whole of

the existing hospital, and for this reason option three is the preferred option."

South Wales Argus:

The section of the old Tredegar Hospital that is set to be incorporated into the new health and wellbeing centre

Tredegar Hospital opened in 1904 and played a key role in the free-at-the-point-of-delivery healthcare system developed in the town in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, which came to be known as the Tredegar Workmen's Medical Aid Society. This was Aneurin Bevan's blueprint for the National Health Service.

The hospital has been empty since 2010, when its services transferred to the then newly opened Ysbyty Aneurin Bevan in Ebbw Vale, and though it has since become increasingly derelict and a magnet for anti-social behaviour, its historic value has been acknowledged in the design for the new health and wellbeing centre.

The latter is long overdue for the town, which has two GP surgeries - Glan-Yr-Afon Surgery and Tredegar Health Centre - which cater for the needs of around 13,000 patients.

The latter has been run by the health board for more than two years, since its two GP partners left, and it does not have a direct GP workforce, with core services being provided by locums.

Rising demand, due to a growing elderly population, and social issues that affect health and wellbeing, is proving problematic for GP services to meet, due in large part to recruitment difficulties.

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This is an issue in many parts of Wales and the wider UK, but the OBC report describes these difficulties as "acute" in Tredegar.

In turn, this - along with issues of space, lack of room for expansion in current surgery premises in the town, and a need to develop new models of care to meet the demand - means that the health and wellbeing centre is a priority scheme for the health board.

It is hoped that, subject to the OBC's approval by board members on Wednesday, and by the Welsh Government thereafter, and more detailed full business case can be developed and submitted by next April, and approved by next June.

This would pave the way for building work to begin in July next year, with a proposed completion date of December 2021.