Tredegar General Hospital ( cy, Ysbyty Cyffredinol Tredegar) was a

community hospital A community hospital can be purely a nominal designation or have a more specific meaning. When specific, it refers to a hospital that is accessible to the general public, and provides a general or specific medical care which is usually short-term, i ...

Tredegar Tredegar (pronounced , ) is a town and community situated on the banks of the Sirhowy River in the county borough of Blaenau Gwent, in the southeast of Wales. Within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire, it became an early centre of the In ...

Blaenau Gwent Blaenau Gwent (; ) is a county borough in the south-east of Wales. It borders the unitary authority areas of Monmouthshire and Torfaen to the east, Caerphilly to the west and Powys to the north. Its main towns are Abertillery, Brynmawr, Ebbw ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. It was managed by the Aneurin Bevan Local Health Board.

History

In 1901, the

Tredegar Medical Aid Society Tredegar Medical Aid Society was founded in Tredegar in South Wales. In return for contributions from its members it provided health care free at the point of use. This society contributed the model which established the British National Health S ...

convened a public meeting to discuss the establishment of a hospital and eventually a committee of more than 30 members was set up to build and manage it. Land for the new hospital was donated by

Lord Tredegar Baron Tredegar, of Tredegar in the County of Monmouth, was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 16 April 1859 for the Welsh politician Sir Charles Morgan, 3rd Baronet, who had earlier represented Brecon in Parliament ...

. Funding came from the Tredegar Iron and Coal Company, other local employers and organisations, private and public donations and by the workmen mainly from the pits who agreed to maintain the hospital by having an extra halfpenny a week deducted from their wages. It was opened as Tredegar Park Cottage Hospital in December 1904.

Walter Conway Walter Conway (1872 – 1933) was the longstanding secretary of the Tredegar Medical Aid Society in South Wales. This society contributed the model which established the British National Health Service. Early life John Walter Conway, to give h ...

was employed as secretary of the Medical Aid Society from 1915 and contributed to making the community health scheme a success.

A.J. Cronin Archibald Joseph Cronin (19 July 1896 – 6 January 1981), known as A. J. Cronin, was a Scottish physician and novelist. His best-known novel is ''The Citadel'' (1937), about a Scottish doctor who serves in a Welsh mining village before achievi ...

, whose 1937 novel, ''

The Citadel The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, commonly known simply as The Citadel, is a Public college, public United States senior military college, senior military college in Charleston, South Carolina. Established in 1842, it is one ...

'', brought much attention to Tredegar's

grassroots A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or economic movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from the local level to effect change at t ...

healthcare system, worked as a doctor at the hospital during the early 1920s.

Aneurin Bevan Aneurin "Nye" Bevan PC (; 15 November 1897 – 6 July 1960) was a Welsh Labour Party politician, noted for tenure as Minister of Health in Clement Attlee's government in which he spearheaded the creation of the British National Health ...

, founder of the

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

, became a member of the Cottage

Hospital Management Committee From the founding of the National Health Service of the United Kingdom in 1948 until the reorganisation in 1974 the hospital management committee was the main instrument of local management. There were originally 377 committees which were answerabl ...

around 1928 and was chairman between 1929 and 1930. After services transferred to the new

Ysbyty Aneurin Bevan Ysbyty Aneurin Bevan ( en, Aneurin Bevan Hospital) is a community hospital in Ebbw Vale, Wales. It is managed by the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board Aneurin Bevan University Health Board (ABUHB) ( cy, Bwrdd Iechyd Prifysgol Aneurin Beva ...

Ebbw Vale Ebbw Vale (; cy, Glynebwy) is a town at the head of the valley formed by the Ebbw Fawr tributary of the Ebbw River in Wales. It is the largest town and the administrative centre of Blaenau Gwent county borough. The Ebbw Vale and Brynmawr con ...

, Tredegar General Hospital closed in 2010. The health board has proposed that a Health and Wellbeing Centre be established on the site.

References

External links

History of healthcare in the South Wales Coalfield
{{authority control Hospital buildings completed in 1904 Defunct hospitals in Wales Hospitals established in 1904 Hospitals disestablished in 2010 Tredegar Hospitals in Blaenau Gwent