The site selected had previously been occupied by Mount Pleasant Hospital, a facility which had been built by the
Admiralty for workers at the
National Shipyard in Chepstow in 1917. It was used by ex-servicemen more generally from 1919, and later by the community as a whole. The new community hospital incorporates the old
Admiralty portico moulding from the front façade of the old hospital.
St Lawrence Hospital, an old hospital specialising in burns, had been located on the western side of St Lawrence Road. The new 87-bed hospital was procured under a
Private Finance Initiative in 1997. It was built by
Skanska at a cost of £10 million, accepted its first patients in February 2000 and was officially opened by Rt Hon
Rhodri Morgan AM MP, the
First Minister of Wales in October 2000. The minor injuries unit closed in November 2011. In March 2013 a local councillor raised concerns that the hospital was just becoming a "glorified health centre". ==References==