Health Secretary Vaughan Gething AM today cut the first ground on the £350 million building of a new hospital in Llanfrechfa, Cwmbran. He also announced that the new hospital, which has been known as the Specialist and Critical Care Centre (SCCC), would be named ‘The Grange University Hospital’.
VIDEO: Watch this video from today’s event
Welsh Government funding for the new 471-bed hospital was confirmed in October 2016 and Aneurin Bevan University Health Board expect its doors to open to patients in the Spring of 2021.
The Grange University Hospital forms a key part of the Health Board’s wider Clinical Futures Strategy, launched in 2004, to modernise health services in Gwent and will create a highly specialised environment to support the treatment of patients who need complex and acute emergency care. The hospital will also have a key regional role, working as part of the wider major acute hospital system across south Wales.
The new hospital will deal with all major emergencies, and will treat and care for those needing complex emergency or critical care. It will be home to more than 40 specialist services, and will have a helicopter pad for patients who need to arrive by air ambulance.
Cabinet Secretary for Health, Well-being and Sport, Vaughan Gething, said: “I am pleased to announce that the hospital will be known as The Grange University Hospital, and it will bring together complex and more acute services onto one site. This will improve the quality of care for the very sickest patients.”
Judith Paget, Chief Executive of Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, said: “We have received fantastic support from local people living in the Health Board area as they understand the benefits this hospital and a new 21st Century model of healthcare will bring.
“I would like to thank our staff for their hard work in getting us to this point and we will continue to work closely with our staff, our local communities, and with Gleeds and Laing O’Rourke to ensure this new hospital is one we can all be proud of.”
Fab to attend sod-cutting of Grange Uni Hospital today with @wgcs_health & @leadertcbc A red letter day for Gwent! pic.twitter.com/6AXXN6HjyO
— Lynne Neagle (@lynne_neagle) July 17, 2017
Laing O’Rourke, along with cost and project managers Gleeds, will be helping to deliver the project on time and within budget.
600 construction jobs
Six hundred people will be employed in the construction of the hospital, a process which will involve the moving of 150,000 cubic metres of soil.
There will be 30,000 cubic metres of concrete required and, once completed, the hospital will contain 13,500 light fittings, and 190 kilometres of cables.
Facts and figures about The Grange University Hospital
Building on our new hospital begins today! More info on our website: https://t.co/5cDhW2AzcH @CwmbranLife #GrangeUniHospital #SCCC #NHSWales pic.twitter.com/rWQtTSAvsG
— Aneurin Bevan UHB (@AneurinBevanUHB) July 17, 2017
Pleased to announce that the Specialist and Critical Care Centre will be known as The Grange University Hospital #GrangeUniHospital #cwmbran pic.twitter.com/EMXV7PwvVq
— Vaughan Gething (@wgcs_health) July 17, 2017