The centre would modernise the way the hospital handles emergencies

Preliminary work on the �2m unit at Glan Clwyd hospital will now begin next month after approval by the board of Conwy and Denbighshire NHS Trust.

The 30-bed unit at the hospital at Bodelwyddan will open in a year's time, handling an ever-growing number of emergency cases.

Centres such as these are becoming increasingly seen as a way of modernising how emergency admissions are dealt with, according to a report to the trust's board.

The new centre will work alongside the existing A&E department and offer patients rapid diagnosis and treatment, cutting their length of time in hospital and improving the quality of care.

Asbestos

Glan Clwyd's operations director Ian Bellingham said the centre was vital.

"This new development will streamline the process for patients.

"They will get much diagnosis and will also be moved around the hospital much less than at present."

It is anticipated that when the centre is fully operational about one third of all emergency patients treated there would be discharged within 36 hours.

Meanwhile, those patients who require further hospital care will be transferred to longer-stay wards at Bodelwyddan.

In the past five years, the number of emergency admissions at Glan Clwyd has risen by 15%, members of the NHS board will be told at their meeting on Tuesday afternoon.

An advance contract to remove asbestos from the existing short-stay unit at the hospital will begin next month.

Construction of the replacement centre will get under way in October with the first patients being admitted a year later.