AM SLAMS MINISTER'S SUSPENSION OF SPECIALIST CARE CENTRE

NATIONAL Assembly Member for Monmouth, Nick Ramsay, has today spoken out over news that work on plans for a Specialist and Critical Care Centre for South East Wales have been put on hold by the Welsh Assembly Health Minister, Edwina Hart AM.

There has been no indication of how long work has been suspended for on the £292m hospital, which was expected to be sited near Cwmbran and would have treated some of the region's sickest patients.

Speaking today Nick said: "I am deeply concerned by the Health Minister's decision to put on hold plans for the new Specialist and Critical Care Centre. This is a huge setback for people working in the NHS in South East Wales and for patients who would have benefited from the new hospital.

"I fully appreciate that budgets are tight and that at £292 million, the new care centre is far from cheap, but a huge amount of time and money has already been invested in the project over the last few years.

"Gwent Clinical Futures concluded that the new centre was a crucial element in reforming the delivery of NHS services in the old Gwent area. We are now left in a state of limbo.

"All the way down the line the Local Health Board were assured that funding would be made available for this project and the Assembly Government was committed to it. Now we are being told are told that this is no longer the case. I think my constituents will be bewildered by this and are entitled to ask what on earth is going on?

"I will be pressing the Health Minister to fully explain the reasons for her decision and I will also be pressing for a clear timescale when she expects work on the project to resume. At the moment this suspension appears to be indefinite and it leaves doctors, NHS workers and patients in a situation of great uncertainty.

"I understand that as an interim measure the Minister is proposing to upgrade existing facilities at the Royal Gwent Hospital. This is clearly essential now that the new hospital is on hold. I am asking the Minister to provide further details of the improvements proposed."