Campaigners wanted an in-patient ward at the new hospital

Campaigners wanted the building to include an in-patient ward but places are to be provided at a nursing home instead.

The town is to retain its minor injuries unit which was feared to be under threat and NHS managers have been told they must work more closely with the community in planning and running services.

It brings to an end a debate in Tenby that has run for decades on where and how the existing cottage hospital should be replaced.

Welsh Health Minister Jane Hutt said on Friday that the assembly government was providing £4m for the hospital but also confirmed that there would not be any in-patient beds there.

You can't get everything you want and I think this was a very good compromise Pat Wright

Local AM Christine Gwyther said: "My initial reaction was disappointment about the beds not being provided by the NHS on site.

"However, the minister has made clear it's going to be a community facility.

"What was made absolutely clear to the local health board was that it had to work much more closely with the friends of the hospital than it has done so far.

"I also think that the extra money has come about as a direct result of the local campaign."

Christine Gwyther has mixed feelings about the announcement

Facilities at the hospital which will be built on a new site will include care services with social services, x-ray, a minor injuries unit and integrated day therapy.

The existing hospital houses patients discharged from Withybush Hospital in Haverfordwest who are not well enough to go straight home.

The Pembrokeshire Local Health Board had said it would look at providing these places at private nursing and residential homes in and around Tenby.

But Ms Hutt said: "It is a condition of my approval that the ten beds are additional to any which are already provided by nursing homes in the area.

"I have also required that these ten additional beds should all be provided in one place, and that they should be continuously and exclusively available for NHS use.

"I will expect that a senior NHS staff member will be present at the home where the beds are provided every day to ensure this is the case."

She said services that were previously unavailable in Tenby would help to tackle bed blocking in the county.

"From the new site a whole series of new services will be available to help people stay at home where previously a stay in hospital would have been needed."

Chairwoman of the league of hospital friends, Pat Wright, said: "You can't get everything you want and I think this was a very good compromise.