BLAENAVON'S community hospital will lose all of its in-patient beds this week on what the town's mayor described as a "sad day".

The nine in-patient beds will close on Tuesday, November 30. The Aneurin Bevan Health Board say three intermediate beds will be reserved at the Arthur Jenkins Home as they become available, more services will be provided to patients in their own homes, and a new medical health centre will be built, if money is found, at the Blaenavon Community Campus.

Mayor of Blaenavon, Cllr Janet Jones said: "It will be an extremely sad day when we lose the hospital beds, and I hope we won't lose the other services provided.

"The hospital has been a part of Blaenavon for a long time - the original hospital was paid for with money from the miners as an early provision of facilities for the workers.

"They've made the decision and it doesn't matter what we do as a town council or a hospital welfare committee.

"I just hope we don't have any fatalities this winter because of it."

The Aneurin Bevan Health Board unveiled its plans to close the beds at a consultation meeting in October.

The hospital mainly treats people recovering from illness or trauma. It also has a minor accident and emergency ward, which will be unaffected by the proposed changes for the time being.

Health officials say the service has to modernise to develop healthcare that is 'fit for the future'. No jobs will be lost in the move.

Member of the Blaenavon Hospital Welfare Committee, Councillor Brian Whitcombe said: "I'm utterly gutted that after all the years we've had a hospital, it's going to close.

"I still feel that everything we have in Blaenavon they take it away.

"In the last few years we've lost the banks, swimming pool, leisure centre and now the hospital, I'm very disappointed and upset."

In October a public meeting was held and over 60 local residents attended.

Concern was expressed that given the current financial climate the new Blaenavon Resource Centre might not happen. Some residents said the terraced houses of Blaenavon were not suitable for providing care in the community.

Other residents raised concerns about how elderly residents would get to the new out-of-town Blaenavon resource centre, especially if there was a winter like the last one.

There has been a hospital in Blaenavon since 1927. The original hospital was situated in the park, in what is now formerly the Beeches Nursing Home.

The new healthcare unit as it currently stands was built 25 years ago and patients transferred from the old hospital at The Beeches to the current site.

It opened as a 10-bed unit but at the moment has nine in-patient beds for people recovering from illness or trauma.