DETAILED planning could begin soon on a project that will mean far fewer people in Gwent with serious mental illnesses would have to travel far from home to receive treatment in a low secure unit.
The development of such a unit at the St Cadoc's Hospital site in Caerleon is being pursued by Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, after a strategic outline case - which lays out the reasons why a project should be pursued - was approved by the Welsh Government.
Low secure mental health places are few and far between, not only in Wales but across the UK, and the result is that patients can find themselves having to be treated in units hundreds of miles from home.
Such out-of-area placements can be very costly for the NHS and, as a report by the Royal College of Psychiatrists concluded, following an investigation of the issue in England, they can have adverse impacts on patients in terms of their recovery, and families in terms of visiting difficulties, as well as being challenging for staff.
The health board has been looking for some time at how the issue can be addressed, and the subsequently approved strategic outline case was submitted back in 2018.
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It proposes a low secure unit of more than 30 beds, where people who are currently accommodated outside of Gwent in high cost private provision, could be treated much cl.oser to home.
Out-of-area low secure placements often cost more than £100,000 per patient, with a bill of several millions of pounds a year for the health board.
And while the initial cost of building a low secure unit at St Cadoc's would also be expensive, savings on out-of-area placements would likely repay such investment relatively quickly.
The clinical model for low secure mental health care in Wales is currently being reviewed and work on an outline business case for the St Cadoc's Hospital project cannot start until this is over.
But a health board report states that work on the outline business case could begin in earnest in May, and be ready for consideration by board members next January.
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