Former Central Surgery, Tredegar
This building was a stepping stone on the road to the National Health Service’s creation. It was erected as a doctors’ surgery by the Tredegar Workmen’s Medical Aid Society, which inspired Aneurin Bevan as he created the NHS in the 1940s.
The society was active by 1892 and opened a cottage hospital in 1904. In 1910 architect Arthur Frederick Webb produced the designs for a surgery and doctors’ residence in Church Street. His other clients included the Tredegar Iron & Coal Company. He designed houses which were built in their hundreds at Oakdale and an accompanying Miners' Institute, now in the St Fagans National Museum of History.
Tredegar’s new Central Surgery catered for ailments which didn’t need hospital care. It included consulting and treatment rooms and a pharmacy. Above were the rooms where two GPs and their families lived.
The quality of healthcare across the society’s facilities spurred further growth in membership, particularly from 1915 to 1933 when Walter Conway was secretary. He was a mentor to the young Aneurin Bevan, who was the colliery representative on the society’s committee in the late 1920s. The society’s primary focus was on caring for coal workers and their families.
In 1910 the society’s chief surgeon, Dr George Arthur Brown JP, died while attending to a patient in Sirhowy. He had practised in Tredegar for 40 years.
The society grew to a membership of 20,000. It employed a chief medical officer, five doctors, two dentists, nurses, a physiotherapist, chiropodist, masseur and support staff. Members paid 3d from each £1 of their wages to the society. In return they received free medicine and medical and dental care, including specialist treatment in England when needed. The society’s hospital had the first electrocardiograph machine (heart monitor) in Wales.
The society’s role changed after the NHS’s formation in 1948. Still focused on miners, it helped with the costs of items which weren’t free on the NHS, such as glasses and dentures, and travel for treatment. Membership reduced as collieries closed and the society was disbanded in 1994.
Under the NHS, the Central Surgery building hosted GPs, a pharmacy, district nurses, dentists and others until the Aneurin Bevan Health Centre in Park Row was built in the 1970s. It later became a nursing home.
With thanks to Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council
Postcode: NP22 3DX View Location Map