New £33m hospital unit to be built in north Wales

A new hospital unit will be built in Denbighshire as part of efforts to improve NHS services in north Wales.

The new £33m healthcare facility at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Rhyl will include a minor injuries unit and be able to treat more than 20,000 people a year.

It is hoped it will ease pressure on the emergency department at nearby Ysbyty Glan Clwyd, reduce waiting times and enable more people to go home sooner after treatment.

But there are concerns about delays to a project first approved more than a decade ago and the reduced scale of the latest proposals.

The new development, due to be completed next year, will also include a 14-bed ready-to-go-home reablement unit, bringing NHS and social care teams together to support patients returning home after medical and surgical treatment in hospital.

Radiology services will be expanded, and four new dental suites built with increased training opportunities for dental nurses.

It is the first phase of a wider £60m investment in the hospital. A business case for the second phase, which would redevelop and improve the existing hospital buildings, is expected to be submitted by Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.

Plans to develop a new hospital on the Royal Alexandra site were first approved in 2013 but by 2018 estimated costs had doubled and the plans were halted during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board said rising costs meant the original proposal was no longer affordable.

First Minister Eluned Morgan said: "This investment is part of the Welsh government's action to transform healthcare in north Wales, modernising facilities and working smarter so people can be treated closer to home."

But Welsh Conservative MS Darren Millar said: "I'm afraid this is too little too late.

"It's been over 13 years since this project was initially promised and it's been promised in the run up to elections ever since. "

Reform UK's James Evans MS described the funding as "the culmination of over a decade of false promises" and added that "the funding on offer falls short of what the Welsh government had originally pledged".

Plaid Cymru health spokesperson Mabon ap Gwynfor MS said that while the investment was welcome, "the people of north Wales have been waiting too long for this announcement" while facing worsening health standards and pressure on other hospitals.