Health and well being campus in Newtown would need more than 30 hospital beds, health board says
A £100 million plus health and wellbeing campus planned for Newtown will need 32 hospital beds, health bosses have said.
The campus at The Park will bring health, social care, education, and volunteer organisations, all together in one place and reduce the need for patients to travel more than 30 miles for treatment over the border to Shrewsbury or Telford.
At a board meeting of Powys Teaching Health Board on Wednesday, more details of the health facilities for the site were revealed, as members discussed the next stage of the project.
It must submit a strategic outline case to the Welsh Government for the project.
Earlier this month, Welsh Government First Minister, Mark Drakeford endorsed the programme business case for the campus.
But estimated costs for the scheme have now gone up to over £109 million.
Assistant programme director, Carly Skitt told board members that work had been done to look the medical needs of patients that the campus would need to deal with.
She said the facility would need step down beds, specialist beds for people suffering from strokes and brain disorders and beds for people suffering from short illnesses.
The facility would also need beds for end-of-life care.
“That’s indicated potential for a 32-bed inpatient unit,” said Ms Skitt.
She added that having MRI and CT scanners, X-Ray and ultrasound equipment in Newtown would open up opportunities to provide much more care locally.
A surgical theatre for smaller procedures such as endoscopies could also be part of the campus as well as some maternity services.
The health board's director of planning and performance, Hayley Thomas said that the outline document would give the Welsh Government reassurance that the campus worked.
and that through “very detailed work” we have identified the preferred site.
Chief Executive Carol Shillabeer said: “I’m grateful that we’re sticking with this and putting something tangible on the table for the people of North Powys in particular.
“Powys still has the oldest estate in all of the NHS in Wales, 38 per cent of it pre-dates the formation of the NHS formation compared with 12 per cent across the rest of Wales.
“We only have five per cent of our estate built after 2005 compared to about 23 per cent across Wales, so we are on a bit of a catch up here.”
It is expected that the outline case will be submitted to the Welsh Government in April and is hoped the campus will be built and operational sometime in 2026.
