The Cardiff hospital has been at the centre of repeated reports of issues with the estate
Wales’ health minister Mabon ap Gwynfor(Image: Rob Browne/WalesOnline)
Wales’ new health minister has failed to commit to a new hospital in the capital city. There have been multiple reports of issues at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff.
Today, parties from across the political spectrum used their first chance to ask questions of Wales’ new health minister and to press him on the future of the hospital.
Mabon ap Gwynfor, the health minister, said the priority was “to ensure that we fix the urgent backlog in the NHS across Wales so that we ensure an equity of outcomes for patients across the whole of Wales”. For our free daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here.
Conservative MS for Pen-y-bont Bro Morgannwg, Andrew RT Davies, asked if Mr ap Gwynfor would commit “to address the shortfall of funding and make the diggers dig the foundations to build a new hospital in Cardiff?”
Reform UK’s Gareth Thomas said he had been using the hospital for 30 years, and said it was a “high risk” site adding that it wasn’t only the Cardiff hospital that was in a poor condition.
Labour MS Huw Thomas, who represents Caerdydd Penarth, one of the city’s two seats, said: “Anyone who’s visited the hospital in recent years will recognise the parlous state of parts of the buildings there, and I think everyone can also recognise the challenge and multi-billion pound cost of replacing the Heath hospital.
“But residents in the Cardiff and Vale Health Board area, and further afield, will have likewise been alarmed by comments from the minister before the election, essentially proposing mothballing parts of the current site.”
He said his party had pledged to build a new hospital using a combination of UK Government money and “an innovative mix” of capital and borrowing to fund the build.
He asked the minister to deliver a new hospital.
Mr ap Gwynfor replied: “I recently visited the Heath because a loved one had to go there for an operation, and I could see with my own eyes how there were problems there, as much as when I visited Glangwili and saw the problems there, and Glan Clwyd and other hospitals across Wales.
“This is a legacy left by the previous Government—£1.5bn of backlog that needs to be resolved—and we now have to deal with that.”
The health minister said that in 2021, the previous Labour administration dismissed a £2bn business case for the hospital site.
Instead, he said officials are working to look at the areas that are “highest risk”.
“The survey findings will also inform the development of the health board plans for the site to ensure services continue to be delivered in a safe and appropriate way,” he said.