A private health company has said £10 million plans to build more operating theatres at its hospital between Carmarthen and St Clears would allow more NHS as well as privately-funded operations to take place and create 60 jobs.

Circle Health Group has applied to Carmarthenshire Council for a two-storey extension at Werndale Hospital, Bancyfelin, to accommodate two operating theatres, recovery rooms, outpatient consultation space and a pharmacy. There’d also be 12 extra car parking spaces.

A planning statement submitted as part of its application said anything up to half its patients were NHS referrals and that it had contracts with Hywel Dda and Swansea Bay university health boards for orthopaedic, ophthalmic, dermatology, general surgery and imaging work.

It said the hospital saw 19,000 outpatients and carried out 3,500 operations per year, and added: “The hospital is at maximum capacity, with waiting lists of over 100 patients for appointments and procedures.”

The planned £10 million investment, it said, would enable a further 8,000 outpatients and 800 in-patients to be dealt with annually. “There is specific demand for this in the area, with long elective waiting lists and a projected population growth which is above the national average,” said the planning statement.

Werndale Hospital currently has 104 contracted staff, 50 “bank” staff and 64 practising consultants, and 60 more roles would be created if the extension was built. The planning statement said the hospital was turned into an NHS cancer and surgery treatment unit during the coronavirus pandemic. A single-storey extension was completed there two years ago.

People in the area can comment on the latest plans, and some already have when a pre-planning consultation took place. There were two objections about potential overlooking from new hospital bedrooms, the proposed yellow entrance area, and car parking.

The hospital is investigating car-sharing and off-site parking during construction, that privacy glass was proposed for new hospital bedrooms, and the entrance would be “burnished copper” rather than yellow. Council planning officers are assessing the application.

In June this year Hywel Dda University Health Board had 16,006 patients waiting more than a year for treatment.