Plans for new mental health unit at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd

Richard Evans, local democracy reporter

A new hospital extension and multi-storey car park are planned at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd.

Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board has applied to Denbighshire County Council, seeking permission to build an adult and older persons’ mental health unit at the hospital on Rhuddlan Road, Bodelwyddan.

The health board wants to build the new unit and the multi-storey on two plots of land, both currently used as car parks on the hospital grounds.

If the development gets the go-ahead, the purpose-built mental health unit will provide a replacement for the existing Ablett Unit.

The new unit would provide a 59-bed modern, purpose-built facility as part of a two-storey and part three-storey structure built at the northwestern corner of the hospital’s campus.

The existing Ablett Unit buildings would then be retained to be re-purposed for administrative functions currently accommodated elsewhere within the hospital.

The new multi-storey would replace a surface level car park on the northeastern corner of the campus, providing three levels of parking and replacing the spaces lost to the new unit – as well as increasing parking provision overall at the hospital.

Planning statement

A planning statement reads: “Dedicated mental health care at the hospital is currently provided at the Ablett Unit which is accommodated in a series of connected buildings at the southern end of the hospital campus.

“The existing Ablett Unit buildings are now approaching 30 years old, having opened in the mid-1990s. The proposed new facility would primarily replace the Ablett Unit as well as re-accommodate some existing older people’s mental health inpatient services from the Bryn Hesketh facility at Colwyn Bay.

“A number of long-standing issues with these existing facilities currently impacts upon the health board’s ability to provide the best possible mental health care for its patients, and therefore a new facility is sought.”

The statement adds: “The new facility represents part of a wider planned transformation of mental health service provision and forms a key component of the health board’s strategy for mental health provision in North Wales.

“The new facility would provide a significantly improved, modern facility, which would enable staff to deliver improved levels of care.

“The proposed new building would provide new acute mental health beds, necessary for the health board to meet current and projected future demand, in turn ensuring that more people from the Conwy and Denbighshire area are able to receive the care they need closer to home.”