OPTIONS for providing a kidney dialysis unit in north Gwent will be weighed up during the summer, as part of the development of an ambitious Wales-wide plan to boost facilities.

North Gwent was identified last year as an area that would benefit from such a unit, though it was not put in the highest priority group by Wales' two renal networks that drew up a list of potential sites across the country.

This meant details such as location, size and cost of a unit in north Gwent were not addressed - but more detailed work, including a potential priority order for so-called phase two schemes, will now be considered by the new Welsh Renal Managed Clinical Network.

Blaenau Gwent AM Trish Law raised the issue in the Assembly, and health minister Edwina Hart said network bosses will look again this summer at the proposed north Gwent unit, among a number of other projects.

A dialysis unit is likely to cost several millions of pounds, and with NHS budgets tightening, such a project is unlikely to be ready this side of 2014/15.

A plan to expand dialysis provision across Wales has already resulted in new facilities in several areas, but the timescale for a north Gwent unit depends on the money available to the network in the next few years.

Mobile units have been considered as a short-term solution, but the network believes they are prone to additional risks, such as mechanical faults, and might in the long term be more expensive.

Home dialysis and the use of community support services is also a short-term option, but this is more likely to happen in remote areas.

Nevill Hall Hospital, Abergavenny, would be a frontrunner to house a dialysis unit, but its timing might not coincide with a long term proposal to build a new hospital on the site, as part of a currently stalled hospital services modernisation programme in Gwent.