Powys Teaching Health Board has been asked for reassurances that enough doctors and healthcare professionals will work at the proposed health campus in Newtown when it opens in five years.

Powys councillor for Newtown East Joy Jones (Action for Powys) said: "We have struggled for doctors in the area for many, many years and we are really short for doctors in Newtown. I want to be reassured that we know that we are going to have it staffed and that we have got reassurance from other areas to support it."

Powys Teaching Health Board (PTHB) said key discussions about workforce will be held next year. Plans include a training academy at the site to "grow our own" healthcare staff.

Carly Skitt, Programme Lead at PTHB for the North Powys Wellbeing Hub, told town councillors on Monday (November 22) that the team is looking at ways of commissioning services "differently and more flexibly" for patients in the area.

"We know that that workforce is a risk as much as it is an enabler. We are really keen to understand how we do things differently and we are having some really good clinical conversations with consultants and GPs from Powys, Hywel Dda and Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust about how we can make it work.

"We are looking at how to upskill our existing staff and how the academy can do that and attract people to work in the area and for us to grow our own.

"The combined offer, while I appreciate adds complexity, it also enables us to achieve this at the same time.

"We are having conversations about how we work with the other hospital transformation programmes on our border to get that clinical join up and discussion happening.”

Newtown Mayor Councillor Richard Williams described the project as "exciting" for the town.

"I hope we will get to see something in the ground by 2026. It will be very exciting. It’s great that Newtown has been chosen for the site for the whole of north Powys.

"It’s fantastic for our town and benefits of a health and on our doorstep will be fantastic to bring in people into Newtown and create new jobs."

People living in north Powys are being urged to share their views about the health campus in an online survey which will run until midnight on Sunday, December 12.

Paper copies of the survey are available from council libraries or by contacting powyswellbeing.north@wales.nhs.uk or by ringing 07792 129677.

Further engagement sessions will be carried out as the programme develops in the coming years, the health board added.