A FORMER hospital site that played a crucial role in the healthcare scheme that inspired Aneurin Bevan to pursue the setting up of the NHS, is set for a new lease of life.

Tredegar General Hospital, which opened in 1904, was a key component of the facilities run by the town's Medical Aid Society for decades prior to the NHS starting in 1948.

It closed 10 years ago when Ysbyty Aneurin Bevan opened in Ebbw Vale, and has remained largely unusued since then.

But now the site is set to host a new era of healthcare, with the development of plans for a multi-million pound Tredegar Health and Wellbeing Centre - and townspeople will have the chance to contribute to the process.

A major step in preparation for the development of the centre has been taken with the announcement by Aneurin Bevan University Health Board of a supply chain partner - Keir - for the project, following a competitive tendering process.

Work is now beginning on developing options for the site.

The centre will house a range of amenities, including: GP surgeries, providing a enhance range of primary care services; a pharmacy; dental services; an integrated health and social care team for adults and children; a base for community-based services such as district nursing, midwifery and podiatry.

Crucially, it will also support the delivery of vital local health and wellbeing services by voluntary and charitable organisations, and NHS partners.

Project management will be provided by Gleeds, with the firm Lee Wakemans in the cost adviser role.

A new health and wellbeing centre, which has replaced several ageing and unsuitable facilities in Brynmawr, opened in the town earlier this year, and the Tredegar project is now one of two similar priority projects in Gwent, the other being for the eastern side of Newport.

“We are very pleased indeed to be working with Keir and the other partners to deliver this integrated health and wellbeing centre, which is a perfect example of our ambitions for the transformation of health care delivery across Gwent through our Clinical Futures programme," said health board chief executive Judith Paget.

“Clinical Futures is committed to moving care closer to residents’ homes and this health and wellbeing centre will be doing just that - allowing patients to access a wide-range health and social care services under one roof in the heart of their own community.”

Blaenau Gwent AM Alun Davies welcomed the health board's proposals "to reform and invest in the future of our healthcare in Tredegar."

“I am especially pleased that, in the year we celebrate the 70th anniversary of our NHS, the future of the general hospital in Tredegar has been secured as a 21st Century health facility," he said.

“Having worked with the health board for some years to secure this provision, I am delighted that the people of Tredegar will continue to be able to access high quality primary health care in a new setting in the very near future."