Gwynedd hospitals put up for sale

Jun 9 2009

TWO former community hospitals in Gwynedd have been put on the market.

Ysbyty Bryn Seiont in Caernarfon and Ysbyty Minffordd in Bangor have been put up for sale by North West Wales Hospital Trust.

Estate agent Steven Wade of Legat Owen could not put a price on them, but said it wasn’t expected to be in the seven figure range.

Gwynedd County Council planners said they hope the buildings could be used for health care or employment uses.

Bryn Seiont in Pant Road, Caernarfon, was formed in 1914 as a sanatorium.

It was managed by the Caernarfon and Anglesey Hospital Management Committee since the 1948 NHS Act.

The hospital saw a grim period in the 1930s when tuberculosis was a scourge of quarrymen in the Caernarfon district.

An unusual feature of Bryn Seiont on its wooded site above the Seiont bridge was that the patients were housed in wooden cabins so they would have plenty of fresh air to aid their recovery.

Following reorganisation in 1974, the site fell under the control of Gwynedd District Health Authority, and then North West Wales NHS Trust from 1999 onwards.

Bryn Seiont later became a hospital offering palliative care by Macmillan nurses for cancer patients and then a centre used by the Blood Transfusion Service and a base for ambulances.

In the 1990s, however, the health authority decided it was "unsuitable for modern in-patient healthcare" and it eventually closed in 2004, despite local opposition, with its services moved to nearby Ysbyty Eryri.

Minffordd opened in 1895 as an isolation hospital to treat infectious diseases such as scarlet fever, diphtheria and measles.

It later became a centre for treating skin complaints.

In 1988, after refurbishment, it reopened as a hospital for the elderly mentally infirm.

Cash-strapped Gwynedd County Council is also hoping to recoup some money by putting another former community hospital on the market, Ysbyty Bron-y-Garth in Penrhyndeudraeth.

It is estimated that £2.1 million was needed to be spent on necessary renovation works.