DETAILED proposals for two health and wellbeing 'super surgeries' - to serve patients in Tredegar and the east of Newport - could be ready for submission to the Welsh Government before the autumn.

Outline business cases (OBCs) for the multi-million pound projects are currently being developed for Aneurin Bevan University Health Board.

The aim is for the OBC for the Tredegar scheme to be ready for submission by the end of July, with that for the Newport East scheme to follow by the end of September.

The Welsh Government has approved £571,000 of capital funding for this year to enable the cases to be finalised.

Each scheme will involve the siting of GP practices and a range of other primary and community health services on one site, with a pharmacy, outpatient clinics and bases for health and social care teams among the facilities that could be included.

Super surgeries for Tredegar and Newport East are the top two priorities in Gwent identified by the health board for primary care investment, and in December 2017 were included among 19 such health and wellbeing centres that health minister Vaughan Gething said he wanted delivered in Wales by the end of 2021. Around £68m was identified for the programme at that time.

The timescale may prove ambitious, as each project must go through a further full business case stage prior to approval and construction.

But there is a determination at Welsh Government and health board levels to improve primary care and community health facilities, with a parallel aim of providing more health services closer to patients.

Developments like these were proposed for both Tredegar and the east of Newport more than 10 years ago, though economic downturn and recession put the brakes on both.

The revived Tredegar scheme, as reported in the South Wales Argus last summer, could be either a new development on the town's existing hospital site, or a major upgrade and refurbishment of existing facilities there. The Newport East project is likely to be a new-build.