Hospital named after Aneurin Bevan opens in Ebbw Vale

The hospital includes an 11-bed adult mental health unit

Wales' first NHS hospital to offer every patient their own room is to open its doors later.

Ysbyty Aneurin Bevan has been built on the site of the old steelworks in Ebbw Vale.

The £53m hospital, which bears the name of the health service's founder, and the late MP for Ebbw Vale, replaces two older ones in Blaina and Tredegar.

The hospital opens at a time when every health board in Wales is having to make cutbacks.

The building is part of a long-term redevelopment of the former Corus steelworks site.

Work began on the hospital to coincide with the celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of the creation of the NHS founded by Health Minister Aneurin "Nye" Bevan, the MP for Ebbw Vale.

The hospital has 96 en-suite single rooms aimed at improving patient privacy as well as reducing the risk of spreading infection.

It also has 11 adult mental health beds, 15 outpatient consulting rooms, a radiology department and a GP out-of-hours and minor injuries unit.

Aneurin Bevan was Ebbw Vale's MP from 1929 until his death in 1960.

The British Medical Association has said it was "encouraging" to see single rooms "at the heart" of the hospital, although the Royal College of Nursing has said an all-single rooms policy will "not by itself improve infection control".

The official opening of the hospital is scheduled for 9 December.

The hospital is run by Aneurin Bevan Health Board which came into being in October 2009 replacing the former Gwent Healthcare NHS Trust and Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly, Monmouthshire, Newport and Torfaen Local Health Boards.