£121m Llantrisant surgery hub will have six theatres and 54 beds
A £121m orthopaedic hub planned for Llantrisant will contain six operating theatres, 54 beds and its own diagnostic and recovery facilities. The Regional Orthopaedic Arthroplasty Hub will initially concentrate on hip and knee replacements and is intended to carry out an average of 3,000 operations a year once it opens.
The Llantrisant plan
- Funding
- £121m
- Operating theatres
- 6
- Beds
- 54
- Annual operations
- 3,000
- Construction finish
- Late 2028
- First patients
- Early 2029
Patients will not use it until 2029
Building work is due to start this month at Llantrisant Health Park. The Welsh Government expects construction to finish in late 2028 and the first patients to be treated in early 2029. The announcement does not give a more precise opening date or divide the £121m between building, equipment and other costs.
Three health boards are working together on the centre: Cwm Taf Morgannwg, Aneurin Bevan and Cardiff and Vale. That makes it a regional service for south-east Wales rather than an expansion serving only patients already treated in Llantrisant. The site was previously an aircraft engineering factory and has already been converted into a health campus.
The 36-week target
The stated aim is that by 2030 no patient in the region waits longer than 36 weeks for hip or knee treatment. That is a future target, not the current position and not a promise that every patient will be treated inside that time from the day the hub opens. The announcement does not give the present regional waiting list, the number currently beyond 36 weeks or the amount of existing activity that the new centre will replace.
The plan is to group high-volume replacement surgery in one dedicated centre, allowing the three health boards to treat more patients and increase the number who can go home on the day of an operation. No estimate for same-day discharges is included.
Health and Care Minister Mabon ap Gwynfor described the funding as long-term capacity rather than a short-term measure. The hub is part of the Welsh Government's wider planned-care programme, announced earlier this month, which also includes more surgical and diagnostic capacity and a stated goal of reducing the overall waiting list to its pre-pandemic level before the end of the Senedd term.