HEALTH chiefs are looking at ways of improving services to Blaenau Gwent patients ahead of the opening of the proposed £35 million hospital at Ebbw Vale in 2009.

The number of outpatient clinics being provided at Blaina Hospital was already increased, meaning more patients can see specialists without having to travel to Nevill Hall Hospital at Abergavenny.

Firm proposals for boosting the county borough's hospital services have not yet been drawn up, but Gwent Healthcare Trust is keen to broaden the services available now, rather than wait more than three years for the new hospital to open.

Twenty additional car parking spaces are being created at Blaina Hospital to support the transfer of patients from clinics at the old Ebbw Vale Hospital, which closed last November.

When these are complete, the possiblity of providing more clinics at Blaina, or at Tredegar Hospital, which is now dealing with all minor injury cases in Blaenau Gwent, will be explored.

The new hospital, currently scheduled to open by the end of 2009, will provide more than 100 beds, a 24-hour minor injury unit, and a range of outpatient, diagnostic and therapy services which will mean thousands of appointments for patients at Nevill Hall can be made instead to a facility nearer their homes.

The new hospital is likely to be the first completed under Gwent's Clinical Futures plan, which proposes a network of such Local General Hospitals, providing a range of services closer to patients' homes.

A 20-acre plot at the Westgate section of the former Corus steelworks site at Ebbw Vale has been earmarked for the hospital and is being cleaned up.A design team and contractors for the hospital project will be appointed shortly, and the trust aims to complete the final business case for the Assembly by the end of this year.