Services

Respiratory clinics to support patients with asthma or COPD are held weekly with our pharmacist or practice nurse.

These clinics help you manage your asthma/COPD, look at techniques to ensure you get the maximum benefit from your inhaler, and discuss other support that might be available for you.

Please complete our asthma review form prior to your appointment.

Your new pregnancy is an exciting and daunting new adventure. We recommend that you register with your local midwife as soon as you find out that you’re pregnant.

Register and find out more information on the NHS Wales website

In addition, here is some really useful information about vaccines during pregnancy to help keep you and your baby safe.

There is no facility to see unwell children at this clinic, so if your child needs to be seen because they are unwell, then you should contact the surgery for advice from one of our Nurse Practitioners or GPs, not this particular clinic. For obvious reasons, we prefer sick or unwell children to refrain from attending this particular clinic where newborn babies may be present.

Although we call this clinic Baby Clinic we also do all of our routine child health surveillance checks and immunisations here, so our "clientele" are not just babies but toddlers too!

This clinic is held weekly on Tuesday afternoons at our branch surgery in Llanharan.

Appointments for this clinic are sent from the Child Health departments in either ABMU or RCT depending on your postcode.

A GP (usually Dr Eleanor Garfield), Health Visitor and Practice Nurse will be present at the clinic.

The GP will perform any necessary developmental/progress examinations.

The Health Visitor will weigh your baby, give advice and monitor your baby's progress.

The Practice Nurse will administer the appropriate vaccinations.

For repeat contraceptive pill checks and contraceptive injections (often called "depo injections"), please arrange an appointment with our nurses via the reception desk.

There is no need to see a Doctor for a repeat pill check. It could potentially take up valuable GP time when our nurses are specially trained and perfectly able to re-authorise your contraceptive pill.

Dr Eleanor Garfield runs a more specialised contraceptive clinic for fitting contraceptive coils. To attend this clinic you'd need to speak to one of the Doctors or nurses first and you may need a few basic investigations or swabs ahead of your appointment

The only services we don't provide are contraceptive implants or sexually transmitted infection screening. However, the local family planning clinic will arrange contraceptive implant fitting (these are the implants that lie under the skin - usually of the inner arm) and the local GUM clinic at RGH or POWH will offer comprehensive screening.

Diabetes clinics are held on Tuesdays at our main Pencoed surgery and on Wednesdays at our branch surgery in Llanharan.

Diabetes blood tests need to be taken prior to your review. Ideally these should be taken up to 2 weeks before your appointment but blood tests taken in the preceding month will be acceptable. 

Your urine sample (annual requirement) to test for protein levels should be brought along to your blood test appointment so that they can both go off together to the lab by courier. You should provide the sample in a white topped plastic bottle. You can obtain one of these white top bottles from the reception desk ahead of your appointment (so that you can do the sample before leaving home) or, if you prefer, you can do a sample when you arrive.

If you are unable to make your appointment, please let us know to cancel in good time so that we can offer the appointment slot to other people. These appointments are precious and it really helps us a lot if you let us know beforehand if you can't make it.

We know that our patients like to look for diabetes information online, so our nurses have given a list of approved websites and Apps for you to use:

• Diabetes UK
• Diabetes Self-Management
• Slimming World
• See our local and national support pages for further advice

Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is a treatment used to help menopause symptoms. It replaces the hormones oestrogen and progesterone, which fall to low levels as you approach the menopause.

Menopause symptoms HRT can help to treat include:

• hot flushes
• night sweats
• sleep problems
• mood swings
• anxiety and low mood
• vaginal dryness

You can ask to start HRT by completing our thinking of starting HRT form

If you’re over 50, live in Bridgend County, and struggle to keep up at home (whether it be mobility, finances, house repairs – anything really!), the Healthy Homes Project from Bridgend County Care & Repair may well be able to help you.

Simply fill out this form and we will ask someone from the Healthy Homes team to get in touch to see how they can help.

For more information, please visit the Bridgend Care & Repair website 

Muscle pains, joint aches and stiffness are all best handled by a qualified physiotherapist in the first instance.

There is no need to see your GP, as they may well refer you to a physiotherapist anyway. The good news is that in our area you have two fantastic options to access NHS physiotherapy directly.

You can refer yourself directly to the musculoskeletal physiotherapists online

First Contact Physiotherapist

Alternatively, you can contact us to book in directly with our First Contact Physiotherapists who work from various local surgeries.

The physio will:

• Assess you and diagnose what’s happening
• Give expert advice on how best to manage your condition
• Refer you on to specialist services if necessary

Podiatrists are experts in supporting patients with feet and lower limb conditions and pain which might affect health or mobility.

For many issues, there is no need to see your GP, as they may well refer you to a podiatrist anyway.

Bridgend council patients

• Refer yourself directly to Podiatry

RCT council patients

• Refer yourself directly to Podiatry

All appointments are with our nurses

Who do we invite?

• Women aged 25 to 49 are invited every three years
• Women aged 50 to 64 are invited every five years

Please do not attend before your smear is due as you will not be able to have your test done early. It is now possible to do your smear test at any time during the monthly cycle apart from when you are having your period.

Smear tests are a very important screening tool and you should make every effort to arrange an appointment to have yours done as close to your review date as possible.

See our travel information page for details

Vaccinations and immunisations are an important part in public health, and we offer a variety of immunisations at the surgery.

Flu

Flu is a common infectious viral illness, which usually gets better on its own, but it can make some people seriously ill.

​We offer flu vaccines to many of our patients from September through to March each year. 

Learn more about Flu, its symptoms and how to treat yourself

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a common cause of respiratory tract infections. For most adults and children, RSV causes a mild illness, such as a cough or cold, and usually gets better on its own. In a small number of older adults, particularly those with heart or lung disease or a weakened immune system, RSV infection can lead to serious health problems such as pneumonia (infection of the lungs) or even death.

Patients who are pregnant will be informed how to get the vaccination by their midwives.

The surgery will contact eligible patients aged 75-79 as required.

Learn more about RSV, its symptoms and how to treat yourself

RSV resources for primary care

Understanding vaccinations in pregnancy can be really confusing. In this short video, a senior midwife from our local area provides more information on the four vaccinations that are recommended within pregnancy: RSV, flu, whooping cough, and covid-19.

Youtube:

• English
• Cymraeg

Vimeo:

• English

Shingles

Shingles is an infection that causes a painful rash, and it is caused by a reactivation of the chicken pox virus.

Learn more about Shingles, its symptoms and how to treat yourself

Pneumococcal

The pneumococcal vaccine protects against serious and potentially fatal pneumococcal infections. It's also known as the pneumonia vaccine.

Learn more about Pneumococcal, its symptoms and how to treat yourself

Eligibility

Eligible patients will be offered the relevant vaccine at the appropriate time, but if you're interested in finding out more, please do speak to one of our amazing nursing team.

We would strongly encourage all eligible patients to take up the offer of immunisation at the earliest opportunity. It's good for you, and it's good for our population as a whole. Young or old, please get vaccinated!

For information about vaccinations for children please see the Baby Clinic above.

If you've been thinking about having a vasectomy, you may be pleased to hear that we have our own vasectomy clinic in Pencoed (at the New Surgery up on Minffrwd Road). Dr Preest is one of three surgeons who carry out vasectomies for the whole Cwm Taf Morgannwg Health Board region at this clinic.

See our Vasectomy page for more information

Warfarin is an oral anticoagulant medication which thins your blood. People taking Warfarin need regular monitoring using a blood test called 'INR', which stands for International Normalised Ratio. The result allows us to maintain the ratio within the set target range.

It is performed by a finger prick test with the result available within 2 minutes so that we can adjust the dose of Warfarin accordingly.

The INR clinics are run at Pencoed Medical Centre on a Monday afternoon and at our branch surgery on Wednesday afternoon.

Many factors can affect the INR ratio including certain medications which are prescribed and those that can be bought over the counter. If you are prescribed Warfarin and have to take any other medication - either prescribed or purchased over the counter - you must tell the prescriber or Pharmacist that you take Warfarin.

​Similarly, certain foods and drinks can affect the way your Warfarin is metabolised and cause the ratio to fall or rise. A list of these foods can be obtained by visiting the website below.

Find a list of considerations if you're prescribed anticoagulant medicines