An Operating Department Practitioner (ODP) at Ysbyty Gwynedd is marking 50 years in the NHS this month. Bernard Jones joined the health service in 1971 as an Operating Trainee Technician at the former C & A Hospital in Bangor, before leaving in 1977 to join the Welsh Ambulance Service where he spent seven years as an Ambulance Technician. During those years, he completed several qualifications and gained invaluable experience on the frontline treating those who needed pre-hospital emergency care. He said: “I decided after seven years with the ambulance service that I wanted to return to work in the hospital and secured an Operating Department Assistant role in Ysbyty Gwynedd when it opened in 1984.
A POST-OPERATION hospital unit that provides overnight care for patients could streamline the surgery schedule at Ysbyty Gwynedd. It is hoped the Post Anaesthesia Care Unit (PACU), a specialised three-bedded unit for patients following a major surgical procedure, will reduce the cancellations of operations by providing more critical beds at the hospital. It opened in January and is located in the hospital’s theatre department and is run by staff from the hospital s theatre team. Dr Carsten Eickmann, consultant anaesthetist, said: “The aim of this unit is to help decrease the number of surgical cancellations when there are no specialised beds available within the hospital.