Dr D A Ware · Dr G V Price · Dr J A Crane · Dr G A Preest· Dr O Thomas

The Medical Centre, Tredegar Avenue, Llanharan, Pontyclun CF72 9QU
Telephone: 08444 778792
Fax: 01443 225646
If calling from abroad, dial 0870 4299726
 

Opening hours    Appointment times    Home visits    Disabled patients    Consultations in Welsh    Private Fees    Overseas patients

New Patient Check    Clinics    Smears    Repeat Prescriptions    Complaints    Removal of Patients    Choice of Practitioner

From October 4th 2004, with the advent of the new GP contract, there will be important changes to our opening hours. The surgery will open at 08:15am in the morning and close at 06:00pm on weekdays. The surgery will be closed all weekend and there will be no Saturday morning surgery i.e. surgery closes at 06:00pm Friday afternoon and will not reopen again until 08:15am Monday morning. At times when the surgery is closed, there will be an emergency doctor service available and you will be able to get in touch with this service by telephoning the surgery.

Improvements in appointment times: With effect from the 15th December 2008 appointments can only be booked on the day required please ring between 8.30am and 10.00am. However, a limited amount of pre-booked follow up appointments (Two to Four weeks) may be booked in advance dependant upon availability please ring after 10.00am. IMPORTANT - We anticipate that the telephone lines will be very busy between 8.30am and 10.00am therefore should you need to contact the surgery for any other reason please ring after 10.00am. We thank you for your co-operation.

Opening hours:
08:15am - 12.00pm Each weekday
1.30pm -  6.00pm Monday and Wednesday
 

Appointment times:
Monday and Wednesday 08:15am - 10.55am and 3.15pm - 5.20pm
Tuesday, Thursday & Friday 08:15am - 10:55am

Consultations are booked at 10minutes, but patients with more complex problems or wishing to discuss more than one problem may book a double appointment if desired. In common with the other GP practices in the Bridgend area, during the afternoon of the last Tuesday of every month, both surgeries will be closed for staff training. If you call the surgery during this time, you will hear a recorded message giving you contact details for an emergency doctor service.

The practice provides full general medical services including:

New Patient Health Check
Eligible patients should complete a registration form obtainable at the reception desk. All new patients are requested to attend within three months of joining the practice for a simple health check. Before attending, we ask each patient to fill in a brief questionnaire. To view or print a questionnaire, please click on the button below.

Clinics
Several health promotion and disease management clinics are run in the practice for more efficient care. All are by appointment only and may be varied from time to time according to the needs of the practice. At present they are as follows:

Cervical smears
For technical reasons, it is recommended that cervical smears are taken "mid cycle". This is approximately 14 days before the next menstrual period is due (for women with a 28 day cycle, this is mid way between two periods i.e. 14 days after the last and 14 days before the next period). If you attend at a different time of the month, you may be asked to make another appointment for a time when you are "mid cycle". Although this may cause inconvenience, it is done to avoid needless repeating of smears that are deemed unsuitable because they have been taken at the wrong time of the cycle. We no longer routinely perform smears on women below the age of 20 (whether or not they have ever been sexually active) and smears are only necessary for women over 20 who have been sexually active in the past.

Repeat Prescriptions
All repeat prescribing is computerised. Your prescription will have a tear slip itemising your treatment (on the right hand side). To obtain a repeat prescription, mark the item(s) that you require and deliver the slip to the surgery. Please allow 48 hours notice. If you wish, you may enclose a stamped addressed envelope and your prescription will be posted to you.

PLEASE DO NOT REQUEST REPEAT PRESCRIPTIONS BY TELEPHONE - with over 10 000 patients, this would block the lines for urgent calls. If the words "APPT" shows on your slip, please refer to the receptionists

Home visits     Telephone: 01443 226204 for Llanharan
If you are unable BECAUSE OF ILLNESS OR INFIRMITY to attend the surgery, a home visit may be required, if deemed necessary by the doctor. Transport difficulties and other inconveniences are not normally acceptable reasons for requesting house calls. PLEASE make requests between 8.30am and 10.00am. Requests after 10.00am make it more difficult for the doctors to plan their visits.
The receptionist will need to have some details so that the doctors can decide which visits are more urgent. This information will be treated in the strictest confidence.

Disabled Patients
Disabled patients have adequate access at both surgeries.

Consultations in Welsh
Mae rhai o'r Meddygon yn siarad Cymraeg (Dr Thomas a Dr Preest). Os ydych chi eisiau siarad i'r Meddyg yng Nghymraeg, gofynnwch wrth y derbynfa.

Private Fees (Dated 01/01/09)

Patients may not realise that General Practitioners are self employed doctors. They are not employed by the NHS, but hold a contract with the NHS to provide certain services - but not others (in much the same way that your household insurance covers damage to household items but would not cover the cost of servicing your car!). Any services not covered by this NHS contract will attract a fee. Our current fees for non NHS services are given below. These fees are also displayed in the waiting areas of our surgeries. The fee covers the cost of the Doctors time in preparing documents and performing examination (when required) in addition to the cost of administrative time and sundry costs (copying and letters etc). Patients sometimes ask why a "signature" attracts such a high fee. The reason for this is that the Doctor often has to spend considerable time examining records (on paper archive and held on computer) before being able to "sign off" a document. It is not unusual for a GP to spend 30 minutes examining medical records in order to provide a signature for one document.

Patients' comments
The doctors receive relevant patients' comments on provision of General Medical Services by reporting to the Practice Manager.

Practice Charter Standards

These are local standards set within the practice for the benefit of our patients. It is our job to give you treatment and advice. Following discussions with you, you will receive the most appropriate care, given by suitably qualified people. No care or treatment will be given without your informed consent. In the interest of your health it is important for you to understand all the information given to you. Please ask us questions if you are unsure of anything.

We are committed to giving you the best service.

Your responsibilities to us:

Help us to help you.

Complaints:
Although we work very hard to provide you with the best service possible, there may be times when you may wish to make a complaint. There is a practice complaints procedure and all complaints should be addressed in the first instance to the Practice Manager, Mrs Joanne Carter, at The Medical Centre, Heol yr Onnen, Pencoed. Mrs Carter will then contact you for a preliminary discussion. Mrs Carter will offer you a meeting and carry out a full internal investigation. Following this you will be given a written reply to keep you informed of the outcome. We would like to let you know that, although we seldom receive complaints, we take all complaints seriously and we listen very carefully to our patients and take the necessary action where appropriate.

Removal of patients:

The relationship between a practice and a patient can sometimes suffer an irreconcilable breakdown. In these circumstances the right of the practice to remove a patient from the practice list remains. Patients too will be able to apply for registration with a different practice if that is their preference. Removal from a list will follow a transparent process that normally would include a warning to the patient before removal. When a patient is removed, practices will be required to give specific reasons to the patient as to why the removal has occurred, though it is accepted that, in certain specific circumstances, a statement to the effect that the relationship between the patient and the practice has irrevocably broken down will suffice.

The right of a practice to remove a violent patient will be extended to safeguard all those who might have reasonable fears for their safety. These will now include members of the practice’s staff, other patients and any other bystanders present where the act of violence is committed or the behaviour took place. Violence includes actual or threatened physical violence or verbal abuse leading to a fear for a person’s safety. It is the responsibility of the PCO to ensure that there is a service available for patients who are difficult to manage, and this will be commissioned separately as an enhanced service as set out in chapter 2 of the new GP contract.

Choice of practitioner:

Patients will now register with practices rather than individual GPs. However, patients will retain the flexibility that they currently enjoy to request to be seen by the practitioner of their choice. This is particularly important for patients who value seeing a practitioner of their choice for the purposes of continuing care, care of particular conditions, gender or ethnicity. Primary legislation will provide for choice of practitioner to be set out as a legal right within regulations governing the contract between the PCO and the practice.

Where a patient wishes to exercise this right:

These rights will not undermine a practice’s flexibility to organise its services in order to best meet patient needs. This means that a practice cannot force a patient to see a doctor that the patient does not wish to see. The practice will still have an obligation to offer immediately necessary treatment to non-registered patients.