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.