Phase two of Llandrindod hospital upgrade approved by health board
Plans worth up to £4 million for the next upgrade to Llandrindod Wells County War Memorial hospital, have been submitted to the Welsh Government.
Powys Teaching Health Board (PTHB) gave phase two of the project the go ahead at their meeting on Thursday, October 22.
The first phase of the redevelopment at Llandrindod has seen an expanded renal dialysis unit reducing the need of patients to travel to Hereford.
Other improvement include an integrated day surgery, endoscopy and day ward area to provide more surgical and diagnostic procedures.
The revamp also includes a new dental suite to offer modern facilities for community dental service, expanded outpatient facilities and x-ray department to provide a modern patient environment for appointments and scans.
PTHB Director of Planning and Performance, Hayley Thomas explained the proposals to board member.
Ms Thomas said: “We’ve recently invested over £8 million into the Llandrindod site, this is one of the sites that’s been identified to be a rural regional centre.
“We’ve received positive feedback about the improved environment now and also our ability to extend the use and range of the site.
“We are all aware of the ageing estate we have across Powys and we have been able to deal with some of the backlog maintenance issues with the initial investment.”
Ms Thomas added that phase two would see investment in facilities for end of life care, a minor injuries unit, physiotherapy facilities and also investment n mental health services.
Ms Thomas added: “We are planning to bring more of our services back into Powys through our rural regional centre approach, and that helps us to deliver better patient care locally in terms of accessibility.
“Delivering services in county when safe and appropriate to do so, enables us to potentially reduce those commissioning costs in the longer term and have a more sustainable model.”
As part of the process, “business justification cases” with detailed designs and fully costed will be brought back to the board for approval before being submitted for Welsh Government approval.
Board Chairman, Professor Vivienne Harpwood, said: “We’ve already seen some exciting changes there, and more is on the way.
“I’m delighted that we welcomed the Health Minister, Vaughan Gething, for a tour of the first phase of improvements before we went into lockdown.
“He did acknowledge how important these small hospitals are to rural communities, thanks to all involved.”
