THE new £350m Grange University Hospital - designed to treat Gwent's sickest patients - is to be opened almost a year early to provide vital extra beds through the coronavirus outbreak.

The plan will provide up to 350 extra beds and these could be taking patients by the end of April.

The opening of the Grange University Hospital is described as "partial and temporary" by Aneurin Bevan University Health Board.

"The challenges facing our health board and the NHS in Wales due to Coronavirus COVID-19 is unprecedented," reads a health board statement.

"With the support of Welsh Government and Laing O’Rourke we are pleased to announce that plans are being put in place to enable the partial and temporary opening of The Grange University Hospital, as part of our planned response.

"We are hoping that this will provide us with up to an additional 350 beds by the end of April 2020.

"Work is now underway to commission areas of the hospital to meet the end of April deadline."

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An extra £10 million has been approved by health ministerVaughan Gething to speed up construction of sections of the Grange.

Health minister Vaughan Gething said: “We are doing everything possible in Wales to increase the capacity of our NHS in these exceptional circumstances."

Health board deputy chief executive Glyn Jones said: “We welcome the support from Welsh Government and Laing O’Rourke in enabling us to make earlier use of the new hospital, which will be an important part of our local plans in responding to the Coronavirus outbreak”.