Labour promises to replace Wales' largest hospital if it wins Senedd election
Matthew Horwood/Getty ImagesLabour has pledged to spend £4bn on the "hospitals of the future", including replacing Wales' largest one, if it wins the Senedd election.
First Minister Eluned Morgan said a rebuild of University Hospital of Wales (UHW) in Cardiff, which a 2019 report said was "no longer fit for purpose", would be part of a programme of investment over 10 years.
Launching the party's Senedd election campaign in Newport on Monday, Morgan said redeveloping Wrexham Maelor hospital and "supporting a new hospital in west Wales" would also be in the plan if Labour hold on to power.
Morgan, whose party has been in charge in Wales since 1999, promised "a new chapter for Wales".
Opinion polls suggest Labour could come third behind Plaid Cymru and Reform in the election, which is taking place on 7 May.
Addressing an audience of party activists and candidates, Morgan said: "The NHS is not just a service, it is a promise.
"We need to renew that promise, not with slogans, but with the biggest investment programme in our history."
UHW, run by Cardiff and Vale health board, is Wales' largest hospital and is the major trauma centre for south Wales.
Built in 1971, recent reports have detailed a range of problems with leaking ceilings, pigeon droppings and heating.
A Labour source said that sites have been under consideration for a new hospital in Cardiff in the north and west of the city as well as in the docks.
There is also an option of a new hospital on the existing site.
It is thought the project could be funded through a "mutual investment model", which would involve private cash as well as public money.
Plans to replace the building have existed since 2019, as they also do to build a new hospital in west Wales.
The chief executive of the region's Hywel Dda health board said in 2015 that it would take a decade to be built.
Getty ImagesAsked by BBC Wales how the Welsh government had allowed the hospitals to get into a state that they need to be replaced, Morgan pinned the blame on the previous UK Conservative government.
"We simply haven't been given the money, in particular when it comes to building works from the UK government. But now that money is coming," she said.
"We've closed the Tory UK government chapter which was all about defending Wales from cuts.
"Now we can look to rebuilding the NHS in Wales."
The hospital building programme was part of five pledges Welsh Labour set out in its campaign launch.
It promised to tackle the cost of living through a £2 cap on bus fares, to provide "jobs for the future", and to protect the plant "by cleaning up our rivers and seas".
Morgan told the audience in Newport if "you pollute our rivers, you will pay", promising a new regulator for water companies.
Morgan also said the party would end homelessness by 2034, with "no child in bed and breakfast accommodation by 2030".
She made a promise to transform mental health support, with a same-day service that is easy to access.
Plans for same-day mental health support have been worked on within Welsh government for some time, building on the Wales-wide 111 "press two" mental health urgent support line.
Getty ImagesMorgan said Labour would "focus on the things that make the biggest difference to daily life, and we will deliver them with the seriousness that government demands".
She said other parties were "more interested in posturing than progress".
Morgan said Reform "offers rage, loud rage, but no real answers", while Plaid offers "slogans", some of which were "even quite good".
"But when you ask for the detail... it all starts to dissolve."
"When it comes to government, Plaid always has a complaint, Welsh Labour has the plan," she added.
On Monday Morgan told journalists that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer was welcome on the campaign trail "if he brings me another £14bn", referring to a rail announcement a few weeks ago.
She said: "That was significant, it was important, and I was pleased to welcome him, because I have been asking for that money for a long time.
"If he brings me another £14 billion, he's very welcome to come back."
The prime minister had endorsed a long list of Welsh rail projects worth £14bn, although funding for all of them had not been confirmed.
Labour's event follows party conferences held by the Welsh Conservatives in Llandudno, and Plaid Cymru in Newport in February.
Welsh Labour has chosen not to hold a conference ahead of the Senedd election this year. BBC Wales was told it would hold it later in the year instead.
It had held conferences before the 2016 and 2021 Senedd elections, however party sources have said Labour never had one in its diary for this spring.
Another party source said: "If you're Labour right now you want all your activists out on the doors at every weekend.
"There is a cost/risk opportunity taking all your activists for a weekend in Llandudno."
