Further £121m funding announced for new health park’s surgery hub
Nation.Cymru Staff
A further £121 million is being invested in a major health facility in south Wales, with six new operating theatres and 54 beds planned as part of efforts to reduce NHS waiting times.
The Welsh Government funding for Llantrisant Health Park will go towards the new Regional Orthopaedic Arthroplasty Hub, which will initially focus on hip and knee replacement surgery and is expected to carry out around 3,000 operations a year.
The hub is expected to increase the number of hip and knee operations carried out in the region, with a target of ensuring no patient waits longer than 36 weeks for treatment by 2030. It is also hoped that more patients will be able to return home on the same day as their operation.
Cabinet Minister for Health and Care, Mabon ap Gwynfor, said: “This funding is a significant boost to the construction of a new purpose-built facility at Llantrisant Health Park – designed to cut waiting times and get people the treatment they need faster.
“Once open, the new Hub will carry out thousands of operations and embed lasting sustainability into the system. This is what real investment in the NHS looks like – not a quick fix, but the capacity we need to clear the backlog and keep waiting times down for the future.”
The new hub forms the next phase of a wider project to develop the site of the former British Airways avionics engineering building at Gwaun Elai into the Llantrisant Health Park, with work on the first phase, a Community Diagnostic Hub, beginning in March 2026.
Construction on this next stage at the industrial estate is expected to begin later this month and be finished by late 2028, with the Regional Orthopaedic Arthroplasty Hub opening to patients in early 2029.
Three University Health Boards — Cwm Taf Morgannwg, Aneurin Bevan and Cardiff and Vale — are working together on the project.
The development has previously faced scrutiny over the role of the private sector, after concerns were raised that diagnostic services in the first phase would be operated by an independent provider.
Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board later confirmed that the second phase, covering orthopaedic and day surgery facilities, was not proposed to be delivered through a managed service contract with a third-party company.
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