Work has begun on demolishing Tenby's former Cottage Hospital. The building in Trafalgar Road, which had been used as a hospital since the 1880s, closed its doors in December. As reported by the Observer in April, Pembrokeshire County Council served notice on Pembrokeshire and Derwen NHS Trust to demolish the building because it was considered functionally and economically obsolete. It is expected that once the building is razed to the ground, the area will be redeveloped. However, what that will involve, has not yet been decideded. A spokeswoman for the local authority said this week that while the matter was under consideration, there were no firm proposals for redevelopment in place at present. Local health-care services in the Tenby area have changed dramatically over the past 12 months. Last June saw the opening of the new Tenby Cottage Hospital, a £4.1 million facility at Gas Lane, which offers a range of services and weekly clinics, while later this year, the Tenby Cottage Ward, a pioneering project in Wales, will come into operation at the town's Park House Court. A brand new concept in health-care, the innovative development is a collaboration between the NHS and the independent sector and will show how community services can be updated and yet remain in the locality they were originally designed for. The facility will feature 26 beds - 10 of which will be used exclusively for NHS hospital patients, completing the re-provision of services previously provided at the old cottage hospital.
