New hospital plans expected after 12-year delay

Big changes to the Royal Alexandra Hospital were first announced in 2013

Scaled down plans for a long-awaited hospital development are due to be revealed.

Proposals for a £22m new hospital with more than 30 beds on the site of the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Rhyl, Denbighshire, were approved in 2013.

But by 2018 the estimated costs had doubled. Plans were then halted by the Covid-19 pandemic, and Betsi Cadwaladr health board said spiralling costs meant the original proposal was no longer affordable.

The Welsh Conservatives said revised plans could mean half the original number of beds, which would not ease pressures on emergency departments elsewhere.

The health board has been asked to comment.

In 2013, Mark Drakeford, the then health minister, approved initial proposals to develop a new hospital on the site of the Royal Alexandra - which was built in the 1890s.

The integrated community hospital scheme was supposed to be completed in 2016.

It would include dental clinics, 30 in-patient beds and 18 in-patient beds for older people with mental health problems, as well as an x-ray department, ultrasound facilities and a pharmacy.

Twelve years on, the site is still awaiting development.

The health board has said it intends to submit revised plans by the end of the month. The plans are expected to be scaled down from the original proposals.

Christine Gardiner says the hospital in Rhyl would be "more handy for local people"

Local resident Christine Gardiner said: "I just think it should be used in conjunction with Glan Clwyd at Bodelwyddan, because the waiting times there are terrible, the parking's shocking, and it would be more handy for local people."

Laura Everett, 41, said the Royal Alexandra was "extremely important, especially with the health system as it is at the moment".

"I feel like the more local places we have... the better," she said.

"I feel like it could be used a lot more to lessen the load off the actual main hospitals. We need it. It's vital."

Lifelong Rhyl resident Michael Jones said: "It is frustrating. You don't know what's happening with the place.

"You hear all these stories, the changes, the improvements, but nothing seems to be happening at the moment. We need to know what's going on."

Darren Millar believes the area needs more than the original planned 30 beds

Darren Millar, Member of the Senedd for Clwyd West, said residents in Rhyl and surrounding areas were "fed up waiting" for the site to be developed, and believed the new proposal may be for 14 beds.

"We're expecting the announcement to say that there's going to be far fewer beds at the hospital than was originally anticipated, possibly fewer than half of the beds... and that means that we're not going to take the pressure of Glan Clwyd Hospital down the road, where we know that the problems have got even worse over the past 12 years," he said.

He added that it was "not good enough" and it would be "too late".

"What we need is to get back to those original plans and make sure that those promises to the people of north Wales are actually delivered."

Mr Millar said any proposals short of the original plans "would show yet again the massive north-south divide and the fact that north Wales is being short-changed".

He added the original 30 beds would help ease pressures elsewhere in the NHS, but "14 beds isn't a spittle in the bucket".

"If anything, we need that original 30 beds to be increased, not decreased."

The health board has been asked to comment. On its website, it said it hoped to submit plans, which will include a bedded unit and a minor injuries and ailments unit, by the end of this month.

Those plans would need approval by the health board itself, and then the Welsh government would be asked for approval and funding.

The Welsh government said it was awaiting a revised business case to be submitted.

Plaid Cymru's health spokesperson Mabon ap Gwynfor said: "The need for a new Royal Alex [Alexandra] is plain for all to see and would help patients across the region, yet this government has twiddled its thumbs for far too long with patients suffering as a consequence."