Health Secretary Vaughan Gething has approved new funding to build the new Sub-Regional Neonatal Intensive Care Centre at Ysybty Glan Clwyd.
This was published under the 2016 to 2021 administration of the Welsh Government
The confirmation of funding means that construction will start on the project next month.
Welsh Government investment of £16.050m, which is in addition to £1.869m already announced to fund the state-of-the-art unit to care for very sick and premature babies in North Wales.
Vaughan Gething said:
“The SuRNICC will provide the best possible standards of care and clinical outcomes for mothers and their babies across North Wales, centralising intensive care at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd.
“This investment reflects expert advice from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health who recommended that the health board should plan to provide neonatal intensive care at one central site in the region.
“I look forward to seeing the project progress and the new unit taking shape.”
Preparatory work on the site has already started with Welsh Government’s initial funding of £1.869m to include upgrades to electrical infrastructure at the site of the SuRNICC at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd and an additional transport incubator for transferring the most critically ill and unstable babies.
Work has also started to recruit the team which will work at the SuRNICC including neonatal consultants, and the health board is identifying what information and support families need and would find useful when they access neonatal care.
The new site is expected to open in 2018.