DETAILED proposals for the development of a cancer centre at Nevill Hall Hospital in Abergavenny are being finalised by Aneurin Bevan University Health Board and Velindre NHS Trust.

A health board progress report on the project - which is set to include a satellite radiotherapy unit - indicates that a plan could be ready by the end of August for submission to the Welsh Government.

The idea of developing a satellite radiotherapy unit in south Wales is several years old, and Gwent's health board was among the early bidders.

Nevill Hall was highlighted as a possible site, and was declared as the preferred option last summer.

The satellite unit would provide capacity to work with that at the Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff, and will give patients in Gwent and surrounding areas the opportunity to receive their radiotherapy treatment closer to home.

Of more recent vintage is the proposal to develop a cancer centre at the hospital. If this gets the go-ahead, it will be a major component in the reshaping of Nevill Hall's role in providing healthcare after the Grange University Hospital at Llanfrechfa Grange, near Cwmbran, opens in 2021.

The Nevill Hall centre is earmarked to house two linear accelerators, or linacs, which deliver the radiotherapy treatments.

The most recent work on the cancer centre proposal has had two elements.

One has been a focus on determining what are the capacity and demand assumptions upon which the requirement for two linacs is based.

The second has been an assessment of the health board's cancer services strategy which will have a bearing on the scope of services to be provided at the cancer centre.

No indication of the cost of the project has been made public, but should it garner approval from Cardiff Bay, an outline business case will be required.