Bronglais Hospital has recruited enough nurses to fully re-open its children’s ward.

Hywel Dda University Health Board approved the return of a fully operational paediatric service at the hospital on Thursday, 29 May.

The recruitment of six new nursing staff means the unit is now fully staffed.

In September 2024, Hywel Dda University Health Board announced that children requiring more than 36-hours of hospital-based care would be transferred to Glangwili Hospital, Carmarthen, as a temporary change for a six-month period to ensure safe delivery of care.

Since changes began in November 2024, Angharad Ward continued to provide a 24-hour a day, seven day a week service, treating around 400 paediatric patients, three of which patients were transferred to other hospitals. Two of those were transferred on medical grounds, meaning one young patient and their family was impacted by the temporary change.

Senior Sister and Angharad Ward Manager Bethan Hughes said: “We have struggled to recruit in Bronglais for many years, probably due to the rural nature of the area. While it’s a beautiful place to come and work and live, we are a long way from city life.

“We have been lucky to attract nurses into the service through successful recruitment campaigns and joining together with colleagues and senior managers within the department to look at other possible ways of recruiting.

“We’ve looked at our job descriptions and recruited staff into some of the vacancies on a generic job description for registered nurses who have extensive paediatric experience and knowledge.

“It’s been a mixture of thinking outside the box and adopting a flexible approach, and, on this occasion, it has worked successfully for us.”

Selma Thomas and Anumol Mathew are two of the nurses to join Angharad Ward.

Selma is originally from India but most recently worked as an Intensive Care Unit nurse in Saudi Arabia. Her husband also works in the hospital as a nurse in the endoscopy unit. Selma said: “I have been here four-and-a-half months now and I’m settling in very well. When I started here, I was struggling with some of the protocols and guidelines - how the ward works, admission protocols and discharge, communication with the parents and children.

“But I have caught up, so now I’m happy about that and will learn more. Everyone has been so supportive and friendly.”

Anumol from Kerala in India joined through the Internationally Educated Nurses Programme. This is her first time working away from home but she has settled in well and hopes to bring her young family to Aberystwyth.

“I arrived in Carmarthen in October, attended all training and I joined Angharad Ward in December. I think initially it was a very different situation for me because I hadn’t worked in any other countries, so all the policies and guidelines were very different. But I am lucky to have such good team working here - all of them are very supportive. They helped me a lot and if I have any doubts, I feel free to ask anybody here and they all support me.”

Sioned Rees-Evans from Aberystwyth joins the team as a junior sister after three years at Noah’s Ark children’s hospital, Cardiff.

“The last few years at Noah’s Ark have given me loads of experience and I’ve worked on a general medical ward, so I have a lot of experience. I feel that that has helped me coming into this role.

“I always knew that I would come back to Aberystwyth. I felt it was time for a change and to come closer to home. I love it – the team are so lovely here.”

Sioned, who has been on the ward since December 2024, is a Welsh speaker, she said: “Being able to speak Welsh is really helpful – speaking the mother tongue of the children makes such a difference.”

Bethan is thrilled with her new team, which she is looking forward to developing and progressing.

“This is a new and exciting time for Angharad Ward and we look forward to caring compassionately for the children and young people in Ceredigion and the wider areas with the Health Board values at the core of who we are individually.”

Bethan would like to extend her heartfelt thanks to all of her team who have worked so hard to support the service on Angharad Ward at a time of staff shortages.

Nick Williams-Davies, Hywel Dda’s Service Delivery Manager for Acute Paediatric and Neonatal Services said: “We are so pleased that service at Angharad Ward has returned to normal. This is thanks to a lot of collaborative working within the team to come up with workable solutions to our staffing issues.

“We have a fantastic team at Angharad Ward who are ready to care for our children and young people. I would also like to thank staff for working so hard over the last six months, as they always do, to ensure the best care possible for our young patients.”