TWO councillors from Trevethin are to meet Assembly Health Minister Jane Hutt (pictured) to ask for more funding for a clinic saved from closure.

Trevethin Health Centre faced having to close after GPs from Pontnewynydd Clinic in Mill Road, Pontnewynydd, and New Surgery in Old Road, Abersychan, applied to Gwent Health Authority to withdraw branch surgeries from the Folly Road clinic.

They planned to move patients to the Abersychan practice and replace the facilities in Trevethin with a nurse practitioner and a nursing assistant, claiming standards at the centre were inadequate.

However, the health authority's board decided to keep the surgeries at the centre and allow it to remain open. But local ward members Lewis Jones and John Marshall now want further funding from the National Assembly to improve facilities and have arranged a meeting with Ms Hutt.

Both councillors have campaigned for two years for a better service at the surgery in one of the most deprived areas in Wales.

Councillor Jones said: "The decision by Gwent Health Authority to keep GP services at Trevethin is very important. The Trevethin community have won their battle and I would pay tribute to their determination. Now the next fight is to generate money to improve the centre."

Councillor Marshall added: "It is vital that we have a local service, so that residents will not have to make a long journey to Abersychan or Pontnewynydd to see a doctor and the centre is highly thought of in the community. Councillor Jones and I hope that by meeting with the minister, we can impress on her the need to secure extra money for the centre and a better service for residents."

If Ms Hutt agrees, the extra funding would be on top of a £100,000 sum already ring-fenced by the local health group for refurbishment next month. Under the proposals, new equipment will be installed and a nurse practitioner could share some of the GPs' workload. An alternative site has been found while the modernisation is carried out.

Martin Livesey, general manager of Torfaen LHG, said: "Our aim is to have someone there every day, and in doing so, perhaps open up the service to the hundreds of patients in Trevethin who currently go elsewhere."