GO-AHEAD has been given for a new ‘super hospital’ serving the Gwent region.

Wales’ Health Secretary Vaughan Gething announced on Monday (31st October) that the Specialist and Critical Care Centre (SCCC) near Cwmbrân is expected to open in 2022.

Monmouthshire County Council has welcomed news of the £350m Llanfrechfra Grange build. Councillor Geoff Burrows, Monmouthshire’s cabinet member for Social Care, Safeguarding and Health said: “I’m absolutely thrilled with today’s news. We have anticipated this announcement for a very long time indeed. The certainty that the brand new purpose-built Specialist and Critical Care Facility based in south east Wales and on Monmouthshire’s border is to be constructed will allow us to plan our health and social care partnerships effectively.”

Existing acute services at the Royal Gwent and St Woolos hospitals in Newport, and Abergavenny’s Nevill Hall Hospital are likely to see changes when the new hospital opens, the Welsh Government has said.

Assembly Member Nick Ramsay and MP David Davies have also voiced their appreciation of the announcement.

Mr Ramsay said: “Earlier this month I raised an oral question during Plenary calling for a statement at the earliest opportunity from the Cabinet Secretary for Health on the proposed construction of the new specialist care centre at Llanfrechfa Grange.

“I pointed out that it was around 10 years ago that I first attended the Gwent Clinical Futures meeting regarding the construction of the centre but that ten years down the line we seemed to be no further forward, with the project being delayed time and time again.

“Today’s announcement hopefully brings the project a step closer.”

The hospital’s construction is part of a plan to modernise health services run by the Aneurin Bevan Health Board.  When built, the new hospital will treat patients who need complex and acute emergency care in the Gwent region.

Mr Davies has described the news as “better late than never” after recently called for clarity over the future of the project after fearing it had been “kicked into the long grass”.

The full business case for the SCCC, which will serve a 600,000 population in Gwent and south Powys, took the Welsh Government more than a year to approve.

“I’m delighted we are finally able to look forward to a new hospital,” said Mr Davies.