Cwmafan and Cymmer Health Centres
Health Board GP Practice
Our aim is to offer the highest standard of health care and advice to our patients.
We have a team approach to patient care and commit to monitoring the service provided to patients, to ensure that it meets good standards of care.
We are dedicated to ensuring that all Practice staff are trained to the highest level and to provide a stimulating and rewarding environment in which to work.
Our Practice Charter
Patients will be treated with courtesy and respect by all Practice staff.
Requests deemed clinically urgent by the triaging Doctor will be responded to the same day.
Our standard is to see patients within 30 minutes of their appointment time.
Telephone calls are placed in queue, you will be notified of your position and expected time of waiting.
Requests for repeat prescriptions will be dealt with within 72 hours.
All comments and suggestions about the service are welcome. We have various methods to receive feedback.
If you have a complaint, please speak to any member of staff. Your complaint will be dealt with in a professional and efficient manner.
We wish to make the practice as accessible as possible. If you have hearing, visual or physical difficulties please let the receptionist know so that we can enable you to make full use of our services.
Patient’s Responsibilities
If you are unable to attend for an appointment, please let us know as soon as possible so that we can offer it to someone else.
If you are late for your appointment, you may be asked to rebook at another time. Try to let us know in advance if you are going to be unavoidably delayed, so that we can make alternative arrangements to help you.
A home visit will be undertaken if the clinician agrees that it is clinically necessary.
An urgent appointment is for an urgent medical problem as triaged by the clinician.
We would ask you to be patient if the doctor is running late. This is often due to unforeseeable emergencies. The receptionist will advise you of this.
Please act in a responsible and courteous manner whilst on the Practice premises for the safety and comfort of others.
Please treat all surgery staff, fellow patients, carers and visitors politely and with respect. Violence or verbal harassment will not be tolerated or accepted; you may be removed from the practice list.
Opening Hours
The Health Board GP Practice operates from 8am to 6.30pm Monday to Friday, excluding bank holidays.
The telephone lines are open from 8am to 6.30pm and you can contact the practice at any time during the day. You will not be asked to call back the next day. All enquiries will be clinically assessed on the same day but may not be responded to until the next working day.
Cwmafan Health Centre doors open at 8.30am and close at 6.30pm. During this time, you can attend the health centre or speak to a receptionist at the desk, and you can make a request for a clinical review at the desk.
Cymmer Health Centres’ doors open at 8.30am and close at 6.30pm on a Monday, Wednesday and Thursday and from 8.30am until 1.30pm on a Tuesday and Friday. These reduced opening hours are currently temporary.
We aim to provide a GP for each site every day for face-to-face appointments during morning and afternoon sessions. They will also be supported by our wider clinical team. Between the hours of 5pm and 6.30pm, on call provision will be provided at one site only.
We aim to provide a nursing team clinic Monday to Friday in line with the current opening hours. This may change due to annual leave/sickness.
The practice undertakes blood-taking clinics each morning between 9am and 1pm, with the practice healthcare support workers. You may request an appointment in Cymmer and Cwmafan health centres via Ask my GP (24 hours) or please contact the practice, where our reception team will be able to assist.
You will be offered the next available appointment for all services, which could be at either Cymmer or Cwmafan; this may be at the health centre that is not your local health centre. If you wish to attend your local health centre, then please inform the staff member booking the appointment and you will be offered the next available appointment at that health centre.
Telephone
You can telephone the practice from 8am to 6.30pm to make a clinical request or for general enquiries.
If you are requesting assessment of a health problem, the receptionist will ask you some questions, which have been set by the clinicians. Please provide as much information as possible. This will be completely confidential and will be assessed only by a member of the clinical team.
Response times
We aim to respond to the following requests within a certain timeframe:
Consultation & Advice requests – Urgent within 24 hours, non-urgent within 48 hours.
Repeat Prescriptions - 72 hours.
Medication requests not on repeat (acute) – 1 week
Sick/fit notes – 1 week
Private reports – within 6 weeks
Ask my GP
Ask my GP is a digital platform used by the practice to deal with patient requests. Patients can access the system directly by signing up on the practice website or by contacting the practice.
If your request concerns an urgent health issue you can send requests via the system between the hours of 6am and 12 noon Monday to Friday.
Patients can request a non-urgent assessment up until 6.30pm. Any urgent requests after 12pm contact should be made via telephone.
If your request is for repeat prescriptions and acute prescriptions not on repeat, sick/fit note, nurse bloods, administration request or cancellation of an appointment, this can be done 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
We ask our patients not to add duplicate requests, to help support the practice with demand and providing timely responses.
All response times are as stated above.
Appointments
Following a clinical assessment, you may be offered an appointment with the following members of the clinical team:
General practitioner (GP) this may include –
Physical examinations, tests or procedures to diagnose patients.
Making recommendations for lifestyle changes to improve the patients’ quality of life.
Prescribing medication, treatment, or therapy to patients
Explaining test results and medical procedures to patients
Referrals to specialists
Advanced Nurse Practitioner (ANP) this may include -
Clinical Assessments of patients
History taking
Physical examinations
Independently request tests to help diagnose patients.
Dealing with test results
Develop treatment plans.
Health education
Independently prescribing.
Physician Associate (PA) this may include -
History taking
Physical examinations
Diagnosing illness
Dealing with test results
Develop treatment plans.
Practice Nurse, this may include -
Dietary advice
Blood pressure checks
Urine tests
Health screening
ECGs
Dressings
Routine injections
Immunisations/vaccines
Contraception
Minor Ailments
Smoking cessation
General health advice
Chronic Conditions management (Diabetes, COPD, Asthma, hypertension).
Health Care Support Worker, this may include -
Health Checks
Blood taking
Blood pressure
Height
Weight
Process lab samples
Health promotion and education
Supporting clinical staff, with patient care.
An appointment will be offered in the following way:
You will be contacted either via a message on Ask my GP or via the telephone.
Face-to-Face assessments are offered where the assessing clinician decides that this is the most appropriate way to deal with your enquiry. These may be at either Cymmer or Cwmafan and may be at the health centre that is not your local health centre. If you only wish to attend your local health centre, then please inform the staff member arranging the appointment and you will be offered the next suitable appointment at that health centre.
If you have any questions in relation to your medication or require a medication review you can book an appointment with pharmacists via, ask my GP, telephone or in person. Some medication reviews may need blood test or BP with our nursing team before being booked with the pharmacist.
Repeat Prescription and Medication Review
Patients can request medication in the following ways:
Online (email/ask my GP/my health online)
Pharmacy request (if available)
In–person at the practice. (Drop box).
To improve repeat prescription ordering, we now have a new dedicated email address prescription.w98019@wales.nhs.uk
Patients are informed about medication reviews either over the phone, via ask my GP or by letter.
Reviews are conducted by an appropriate member of the clinical team. Reviews can be carried out face to face and over the phone.
Patients with stable chronic conditions may be supplied with a 56-day prescription, to reduce the need to request each month.
Test Results
Test results received in practice are reviewed by a clinician. If further action is required, a member of the practice team will contact you. Please be aware that the results of investigations take a variable amount of time to be reported back to the practice. We aim to deal with urgent results within 24 hours of receipt.
Patients with normal results will not receive a call back.
Private reports
The Practice aims to deal with private reports within six weeks of receipt. These include DVLA reports, local council requests and employment support allowance.
You will be contacted to collect the report once it has been completed. You will be asked for a cash payment on collection. Fees can vary depending on the type of the report, please ask at reception for the relevant fee.
Chronic/medical Condition Reviews
Patients with chronic conditions are offered a yearly medical review.
Patients are contacted via letter or telephone call to book into one of our clinics.
These clinics will be undertaken by an appropriate member of the clinical team and are available at both Cwmafan and Cymmer Health Centres. If you have not received your yearly invite or have any concerns, please contact reception.
Complaints process
If you would like to raise a concern/complaint, this can be done in the following ways: -
In person-directly with a member of the practice team who will make every effort to respond to that complaint there and then.
Over the telephone with a member of the practice Team on 01639 871071/01639 850543
Via SBUHB Let's Talk Campaign- 01639 684440 or abm.letstalk@wales.nhs.uk
If you would like to make a formal complaint, please contact:
SBUHB Patient Feedback Team on 01639 683363 or SBU.complaints@wales.nhs.uk or write to:
SBU Health Board
1 Talbot Gateway
Baglan Energy Park
Port Talbot
SA12 7BX
Complaining on behalf of someone else
Please note that we keep strictly to the rules of medical confidentiality. If you are complaining on someone else's behalf, their consent will be required.
Dental Services
If you are experiencing any dental issues such as toothache, facial swelling or any problems in the mouth, you should contact your regular dental practice for advice and if required they will provide you with an urgent dental appointment.
If you do not have a regular dentist or have an urgent dental problem outside of normal working hours, please call 111 for advice or help in finding an urgent dental appointment.
Eye Care Services
Anyone who is worried about their sight or is experiencing any urgent or long-term eye problems should visit a high street optometrist (also known as an optician).
If you have an eye problem, you should contact your regular optometrist or phone or walk into any practice that is convenient for you to get to. If the optometrist decides that you need an examination for an urgent eye problem, it will not cost you anything and could save your sight.
Community Pharmacy Services
There are 92 community pharmacies located across the Swansea Bay UHB footprint, community pharmacies should be the first point of contact for patient with minor conditions. Community pharmacies provide an extensive range of services to meet patient’s needs without attending their GP practice; examples of these services are below:
Common Ailments Service – The Common Ailments Service offers patients a free NHS consultation and free medication for 27 common ailments that cannot be managed by self-care alone, offering an alternative to making an appointment with the GP or an out-of-hours doctor. Some conditions included are sore throats, diarrhoea and chicken pox.
Emergency Medication Supply – The Emergency Medication Supply service provides for the urgent supply of prescribed repeat medication, where a patient is unable to obtain a supply via other means before they run of medication. All community pharmacies offer this service.
Emergency Contraception (morning after pill) – all community pharmacies offer this service, this service allows a supply of the morning after pill, following a consultation with the pharmacist to ascertain eligibility, this service is available to females aged 13 and above.