Cluster projects
Audiology service
Swansea Bay’s primary care audiology services delivers quicker specialist access for patients in the community.
Patients with hearing problems, tinnitus or problematic wax can now phone their surgery’s telephone triage system and book directly to see one of the primary care audiology teams at designated clinics.
It replaces the previous system which included a surgery appointment with a GP or practice nurse, who would then refer the patient to the audiology team.
The service within Afan Cluster is hosted at Port Talbot Resource Centre.
The service is in line with the Welsh Government’s vision for transforming primary care across Wales, and the emphasis on providing a range of quality health and social care services in the community.
It also offers advice and directs patients to information that will help them make decisions on their hearing care and manage the effects of their hearing loss and tinnitus.
All Wales Diabetes Prevention Programme
The All-Wales Diabetes Prevention Programme, which launched in 2022, targets people who are found to be prediabetic, or at high risk of becoming diabetic, and helps them make the necessary lifestyle changes to avoid developing the disease.
The programme offers patients a 30-minute consultation with a specially trained dietetic support worker.
This focuses on topics such as physical activity, healthy eating and promotes other lifestyle changes such as smoking cessation and alcohol reduction.
The programme is now available in all eight of the Swansea Bay primary care clusters – with a dietetic support worker based in each.
Community clinician
The community clinician is part of the cluster wide shared multidisciplinary team to support the GP practices to manage their workload while also ensuring that patients are seen at the right time, in the right place by the most appropriate healthcare professional.
The community clinician post is a hybrid role that carries the best skills held by nurses and paramedics.
It aims to:
- Increase capacity and improve patient safety by carrying out home visits.
- Reduce the demand on primary care services by managing the urgent care and home-based services.
- Ensure patients' care needs are provided with the most appropriate response to their needs.
- The cluster community clinician works closely with the cluster GPs to advise on treatment and healthcare of patients, including those presenting in the primary care setting and in the community.
Cluster pharmacist
Our cluster pharmacist works to improve the safety and wellbeing of patients across the seven practices within the Afan Cluster. By working directly with patients to improve their understanding and management of their medications our pharmacist can support patients with chronic conditions, medication reviews and repeat prescribing.
As part of the cluster team, our clinical pharmacist provides specialist advice for patients and promotes appropriate medication use by addressing polypharmacy and reducing prescription waste.
Through taking responsibility for patients with long-term conditions, clinical pharmacists free up GPs for other appointments and so help to reduce the numbers of people presenting at the Emergency Department.
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