GWENT'S health board anticipated receiving almost £26.7 million of funding this year for the long-awaited Specialist and Critical Care Centre (SCCC) - subject to approval of the full business case.

The latter - a document which describes the £295 million proposal in forensic detail - has been with Welsh Government officials in Cardiff since early last autumn.

It had been hoped that former health minister Mark Drakeford would sign off the project before the dissolution of the previous Welsh Government early in April, but that decision will now fall to his successor in the post, Vaughan Gething.

Aneurin Bevan University Health Board chiefs are hoping he will approve the project sooner rather than later, to unlock the money, though not all of it will now be required during 2016/17, given that the original proposed amount was based on receiving approval in March.

Approval will enable the preparatory work to take place on what will be a three-year building programme.

The total amount required for the SCCC would come from All Wales Capital Programme funding, though the lion's share of it would be allocated next year and the year after that, again subject to approval this year.

The health board had hoped a pre-election approval for the full business case would pave the way for an opening of the SCCC in the late summer of 2019, but it is now set to be 2020 before it begins to take in patients, as an opening during a busy winter is likely to be avoided.

Schemes which have already attracted capital programme funding include the ongoing £2.9m revamp of the emergency department at the Royal Gwent Hospital, which includes an extension to the minor injuries unit.

And the Royal Gwent's cardiac catheterisation laboratory - which provides heart tests for patients from throughout Gwent - is to be replaced at a cost of around £1.8m.

There is also a plan to upgrade the neo-natal intensive care unit at the Royal Gwent at a cost of around £2m.

This is part of a regional neo-natal programme involving three other health boards however, and approval has been delayed by the need for further work by these health boards on their projects.