Need Urgent Care?

On this page you will find information on how to get urgent care for yourself or someone else:

• For advice 24/7 when it is URGENT but NOT AN EMERGENCY ring 111. For more information on what the 111 telephone service is and how it can help please scroll down the page.

• For the GP out-of-hours service, which covers the periods when your doctors' surgery is closed, ring 111

• For minor injuries, please visit our Minor Injury Unit at Neath Port Talbot Hospital. Visit this page for more information.

• You can also visit our NHS Direct Wales online symptom checker

• If it is a serious or life-threatening illness or injury ring 999 or go to the Emergency Department.

Below you will find further advice on how to receive care for minor conditions/dental care or to find your local NHS service.

Pharmacies/chemists

Visiting your local pharmacy is a great way to access prompt advice and treatments for common conditions, especially after GP surgeries have closed for the day and on the weekends.

Some of the work traditionally done by GPs is now done by pharmacists instead. This includes giving prescription-only medications for a number of minor ailments when necessary without the need to see a doctor. And, like other medications in Wales, these are also free.

You have to register with the pharmacy to use the scheme, but the process only takes a few minutes. 

Consultations are carried out in a private room and if the pharmacist decides you still need to see a doctor they will refer you.

Common ailments covered by the scheme

• Acne
• Athletes' foot
• Backache (acute)
• Chickenpox
• Cold sores
• Colic
• Conjunctivitis (bacterial)
• Constipation
• Dermatitis (acute)
• Diarrhoea
• Dry eye
• Haemorrhoids 
• Hayfever
• Head lice
• Indigestion/reflux
• Ingrowing toenail
• Intertrigo/ringworm
• Mouth ulcers
• Nappy rash
• Oral thrush
• Scabies
• Sore throat/tonsillitis
• Teething
• Threadworm
• Vaginal thrush
• Verruca

From 1st December 2019, 22 local pharmacies are also offering a see and treat service for patients over the age of six with sore throats. They offer a while-you-wait swab test to determine if the sore throat is caused by a bacterial infection. If it is, you can be offered antibiotics directly by the pharmacist, without needing to get a prescription from a GP. To find out more, please click on this link to see the list of pharmacists participating in the see and treat sore throat service.

111 telephone service

111 is the free-to-call number for people to access the right care from the correct professional 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It brings together NHS Direct Wales and GP out-of-hours services.

How it works:

• Your call will be answered by an experienced and highly-trained call handler who will ask a series of questions which will help them to identify the urgency of the call. 
• Those calls will go to a nurse advisor for telephone triage. They will provide advice on the care that is needed whether that be self care or referral on to another service such as an out-of-hours GP appointment, Minor Injury Unit or Emergency Department.
• A special team of GPs, nurses and pharmacists are also available during evenings and weekends to deal with certain calls including those about minor illnesses or medicine management.

Dentists

If tooth or gum pain develops contact your own dentist as they can provide emergency treatment.

If you are not registered with a practice or develop a problem outside of normal working hours ring 111 and they will help you find your nearest emergency dentist.

If you receive urgent dental treatment the charge will be £14 unless you are exempt from paying NHS charges. If you do not have to pay for treatment, you will be asked to provide evidence of this when you attend the practice.

Toothache on its own (for example, toothache with no other accompanying symptoms or signs) is not a dental emergency.  Patients with toothache should not attend an Emergency Department.

Opticians

Your local optician can provide emergency appointments.

Physiotherapy

If muscle and joint aches and pains are affecting your day-to-day life, you can make an appointment with a physiotherapist yourself, or walk-in to one of our clinics. Go to this page

Sexual health

We run regular clinics from a number of sites across Neath Port Talbot, providing FREE and CONFIDENTIAL advice and treatment by specialist trained staff. Go to this page

Minor injury

Adults and children over the age of one who have had an accident within the last couple of weeks can be seen at the Neath Port Talbot Hospital - Minor Injury Unit.

It is open between 7.30am and 11.00pm, seven days a week, at Neath Port Talbot Hospital, Baglan Way, Port Talbot, SA12 7BX.

An experienced team of specially-trained emergency nurse practitioners, triage nurses and health care support workers treat patients for minor conditions including:

• cuts and minor burns
• sprains and strains
• broken bones
• dislocation of the shoulder, fingers and toes
• head or face injuries with NO LOSS OF CONSCIOUSNESS in the last 24 hours
• neck injuries, where you are mobile with no pins and needles in your arms
• back injuries where you are mobile and the pain has not occurred from you twisting your back or lifting something
• foreign bodies to eyes, ears and nose
• non-penetrating eye and ear injuries
• rib injuries where you are not coughing up blood and you don’t have a chest infection
• bites (insect, animal or human)
• insect stings
• assaults.

The team CANNOT TREAT:

• colds, coughs, sore throats, earache, rashes, temperatures
• urinary infections, cystitis or catheter problems
• dental problems
• accident with injury to abdomen/stomach
• chest pain
• breathing problems
• stroke
• painful limbs, joints or backs
• skin complaints including boils and rashes
• wounds that have not been caused during an accident.