WELSH health minister Mark Drakeford has visited Llandrindod Wells Memorial Hospital to check progress on a revamp including a new birthing centre.

The £1.7m investment will see essential improvements made to the hospital building, including improvements to the roof and front elevation.

The redeveloped midwife-led unit will offer enhanced facilities for mothers and babies, while the inclusion of a birthing pool will increase birthing options for families. It is expected to be operational by June.

The Labour minister said he’d previously visited the hospital 12 months ago and was pleased to return and see the work progressing.

He said: "The midwife-led unit is a fantastic unit but the physical conditions are not what you’d expect in a modern health service. We looked at outpatient facilities as well and Dr John Mattson, the local GP lead, made the case for how much more could be done with a relatively modest amount of investment to improve the facilities,

"We went back to the Assembly found some money, getting on for £2m in this financial year and just over another £3m in the next financial year so it’s been great today to actually see the birthing centre and everything that can be done here for women and babies, it will be open in the coming weeks.

"Having seen it last time and heard the plan to come back and find it all actually happening and about to open that’s been great and then to hear again about the very ambitious plans that the health board and its clinical staff have to increase the volume of people who can be seen at this hospital to have outpatient services is the next phase."

Mr Drakeford visited the hospital with the Welsh Liberal Democrat leader, the Brecon and Radnorshire AM Kirsty Williams who had secured the additional £5.3m in return for her party supporting the Welsh Government’s budgets this year and last.

The birthing unit is being relocated from the first floor of the hospital to the ground floor.

During the visit Cat Langley, head of midwifery at Powys Teaching Health Board, told Mr Drakeford she expects the unit to have an impact on the home birth rate in Llandrindod.

She said it is also planned to make the unit as comfortable for dads as well as mums.

"The area has one of the highest home birth rates so once the unit is up and running I expect that will probably drop.

"We will have a double bed so partners can stay, we think it’s really cruel we kick them out.

"The unit is not just about births, it will also be a hub for women and have postnatal and antenatal care and advice on breast-feeding.

"We’ve got a really deprived community here in Llandrindod and this says to women we value them."

Kirsty Williams told Mr Drakeford women had previously had to walk past admin offices to reach the toilet at the upstairs centre.