WORK to refurbish Seren ward at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital will start in January.

The refurbishment work is expected to take up to 12 weeks and will involve removing existing walls and building new ones.

The work will ensure that patients continue to be treated in a high-quality environment.

To ensure patients are not distressed or disturbed by the building work, the number of beds on the unit will temporarily be reduced from 30 to 20 during the refurbishment period.

Seren ward was opened eight years ago and is a dementia assessment ward. All patients, their relatives and carers have been informed about the forthcoming refurbishment work.

Bernardine Rees, director of primary, community and mental health services, said: “We understand this refurbishment work may cause some temporary inconvenience to patients and carers, but we will be reducing the impact to a very short period and the long-term changes for the quality of the environment will be significant.”

Patients who need a hospital assessment during the refurbishment work will be admitted to Seren ward if beds are available or to a bed elsewhere in Cwm Taf Health Board area until one becomes free on Seren ward.