Major expansion plans at key regional hospital are unveiled

PLANS to expand a flagship Welsh hospital and build a new road to it have been unveiled.

- RICHARD YOULE

Swansea Bay University Health Board wants to build a critical care centre at Morriston Hospital consisting of a new emergency department and operating theatres on land just north of Mynydd Gelli Wastad Road.

‘The land would also be home to a regional thoracic centre for patients who need chest and lung surgery, a Swansea University institute for life sciences building, three regional support services buildings and an energy centre. The critical care centre would have a rooftop helipad.

‘The regional hospital lies just to the south of Mynydd Gelli Wastad Road and would continue to function there. Existing wards would be refurbished and reconfigured to provide more single rooms than currently.

In addition a new block of six wards would be built opposite the new critical care centre. Both these buildings, and the thoracic centre, would be served by a spacious plaza-style pedestrian entrance.

‘This plaza entrance would in turn sever the existing west-to-east route of Mynydd Gelli Wastad Road, with users directed on a loop to the north before rejoining the road a few hundred yards away.

A big part of the new plan is a new road to the health campus, starting at a roundabout just north of junction 46 of the M4. It would run for a mile in a northeasterly direction, continue to the area to be developed above Mynydd Gelli Wastad Road, and be the first part of the project to be completed.