How can we help today?
Self-Help isn’t about being left on your own.
Self Help is about learning to know when you can look after yourself, and when to seek help from other health professionals.
Take a look at the symptom checker for advice on symptoms, or the NHS conditions on specific medical conditions.
We’ve grouped some of the common conditions below.
Common Conditions
Take a look at the conditions below. Did you know, your local pharmacy can help with various common ailments too?
For the Full NHS A to Z list, you can click here.
There is also a huge A to Z video library if you want to watch, listen and learn about a medical condition
Allergies
Breathing Issues
Cardiovascular (Heart)
Dizziness
Feet
- Foot pain
- Gout
- Verruca
- Athlete’s Foot
- Fungal Nail
- Get appointment with Podiatry by calling 0300 300 0024
General
Headache
Kidney problems
Mental Health
- Anxiety and Panic Attacks
- Depression
- Low Mood
- Seasonal Affective Disorder
- Social anxiety (social phobia)
- Stress
- Mental Health Conditions
- Agoraphobia
- Anger
- Anorexia nervosa
- Binge eating disorder
- Bipolar disorder
- Claustrophobia
- Depression
- Eating disorders
- General anxiety disorder
- Health anxiety
- Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)
- Panic disorder
- Phobias
- Postnatal depression
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Schizophrenia
Nose & Sinus
Pain
Periods and Pregnancy
Obesity
Oral and Mouth Problems
Sexual & Genital Health
You can contact the local Sexual Health Clinic
Call 0300 5550279
or email SBU.SexualHealth@wales.nhs.uk
Throat & Voice
Who should I see?
The NHS works as a team with lots of different members.
Our goal is to get you to the right team at the right time.
Click the headings to read which is the right NHS service to seek help from.
- loss of consciousness
- acute confused state and fits that are not stopping
- chest pain
- breathing difficulties
- severe bleeding that cannot be stopped
- severe allergic reactions
- severe burns or scalds
- stroke
- major trauma such as a road traffic accident
- When you need to go to A&E but are too unwell to get there safely.
- Any immediate threat to life/safety
Call 999 now if you have any of these:
- signs of a heart attack pain like a very tight band, heavy weight or squeezing in the centre of your chest
- signs of a stroke face dropping on one side, can’t hold both arms up, difficulty speaking
- tried to end your life by taking something or harming yourself
- severe difficulty breathing not being able to get words out, choking or gasping
- heavy bleeding spraying, pouring or enough to make a puddle
- severe injuries after a serious accident
- seizure (fit) someone is shaking or jerking because of a fit, or is unconscious (can’t be woken up)
- sudden, rapid swelling of the lips, mouth, throat or tongue
Deaf people can use 18000 to contact 999 using text relay.
- For advice 24/7 when it is URGENT but NOT AN EMERGENCY
- This is particularly recommended by our team as GPs, Nurses, Paramedics, Pharmacists and other clinicians help to cover out of hours when Castle Surgery is closed (After 6:30pm, weekends and Bank Holidays unless stated otherwise)
- Adults and children over the age of one who have had an accident within the last couple of weeks can be seen at the Minor Injury Unit at Neath Port Talbot Hospital,It is open between 7.30am and 11.00pm, seven days a week, at Neath Port Talbot Hospital, Baglan Way, Port Talbot, SA12 7BX. Contact number: 01639 862160An 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 and facial injuries with no loss of consciousness and the patient is not taking anticoagulant (blood thinner) medication.
- 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:
- symptoms of Covid-19
- 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.
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.
- 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
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.
Alternatively, here are some dentists in the Neath Port Talbot area:
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.
- Eye emergencies
- Red Eye
- Runny Eye
- DRY EYE
Urgent eye problem – Eye Health Examination Wales
Low Vision Practitioners
The assessment, diagnosis and treatment of common and more complex lower limb problems associated with toe nails, soft tissues and the musculoskeletal system.
0300 300 0024
Community patients can access the service directly and do not require a referral from their GP or another medical or health practioner. The service is available to people who live in the Swansea Bay Health Board. area only. The Podiatry Department does not offer a routine nail cutting service. Please note that you cannot use Podiatry Direct if you already attend a NHS Podiatry clinic.
LOCATION:
Level 1 Port Talbot Resource Centre
Moor Road
Baglan Moors
Port Talbot
SA12 7BJ
- The sexual health services helpline is open Monday to Thursday, 8am to 4.30pm and Friday 8am to 2pm. Tel: 0300 5550279.
- Go to this page for more information on our sexual health services, guides to STIs and contraception and our Pregnancy Advisory Service.
Mental Health Crisis >
Need help fast?
There are a number of FREE helplines and websites:
- Samaritans – 116 123 (FREE and available 24/7) Email: jo@samaritans.org Go to the Samaritans website.
- C.A.L.L. Mental Health Helpline for Wales – 0800 132 737 (FREE and available 24/7) Text help to 81066. Go to the C.A.L.L. Mental Health Helpline for Wales.
- Dan 24/7 Wales Drug and Alcohol Helpline – 0808 808 2234 (FREE and available 24/7, bilingual) Text Dan to 81066. Go to the Dan 24/7 website.
- Wales Dementia Helpline – 0808 808 2235 (FREE) Text help to 81066. Go to the Wales Dementia Helpline website.
Contacting Castle Surgery
Get in touch with our reception team.
01639 622 050
For advice about a condition, or if you’re unsure who you need to get in touch with, please take a look at the interactive Symptom Checker.
This can also guide you through a list of questions and advise you on what you’ll need to do.
Triage times are 08:00 am to 11:00 AM.
Sometimes, due to capacity being reached, triage is closed sooner to allow patients to be treated safely.
Triage allows the clinicians to manage large volume of calls by prioritising urgency of calls.
This is why our Medical Reception are trained to ask you certain questions because this can enable us to quickly decide what action needs to be taken.
Our Medical Reception team are trained to ask you certain questions because this can enable the clinicians to quickly decide what action needs to be taken.
You do not have to disclose anything but it helps you and it helps our clinicians know the context of your call.
We apologise that we cannot guarantee when you will be called back. Castle Surgery is open from 08:00 am and closes at 6:30pm.
Your team of clinicians will aim to call you back as soon as they are able and we are grateful for your understanding that at times there may be others in our community that become acutely unwell or require urgent medical attention.
PLEASE NOTE: Castle Surgery is a General Practice and not an emergency service.
We would like our patients to be safe and NOT wait for any call backs if you are experiencing any symptoms or problems that cannot wait and should be helped instead by our emergency colleagues.
Likewise, if your problem isn’t an emergency or immediately lifethreatening, please avoid going to A&E.
In the event that you are unsure, by all means, please call us and we aim to help you as soon as we can.
This is to confirm what your clinician is suspecting as diagnosis from what you’ve told them.
However, not everyone will need to be seen. Often our patients don’t want to be seen or just want advice or information.
With the advent of video and pictures, that increases the number.
This is because your history of events, the context of your background helps to paint a picture of a pattern of what most likely is happening.
Common things occur commonly but you will also be asked questions to ensure you aren’t experiencing anything that is sinister or needs to be dealt with as an emergency.
That said, there will be times when we would offer an appointment.
- Summerton N; The medical history as a diagnostic technology. Br J Gen Pract. 2008 Apr58(549):273-6. doi: 10.3399/bjgp08X279779.
To ensure those frail and vulnerable in the community still receive the right care, we may need to arrange home visits.
We are grateful for your understanding in prioritising patients who are housebound.
Castle Surgery has an excellent paramedic who liases with either the doctors or advanced nurse practitioner. Because of the success of having a paramedic in the community, Neath has also been fortunate to have the service of the Neath Cluster paramedic too.
Getting help with admin
Are you waiting for test results? Hoping to get a letter from the doctor? Do you need to arrange a sicknote?
- Please allow up to 7 days for routine blood results
- Please try our online form to contact us about test-results
This is often to ensure we get the result in the context of your symptoms and what’s been happening.
Sometimes if the hospital requests a test, we may not have access to the result for some time.
Also as some tests results require speciality training to interpret, our colleagues in secondary/tertiary care will be contacting you about those results
Other type of scans may take longer.
It’s useful for us in case we or the hospital need to send you letters or phone you.
Either call us on 01639 622 050 or email us your details at castle.surgery@wales.nhs.uk
When do I need a fit note?
7 days off sick or less
If you’re off work sick for 7 days or less, your employer should not ask for medical evidence that you’ve been ill. Instead they can ask you to confirm that you’ve been ill. You can do this by filling in a form yourself when you return to work. This is called self-certification.
More than 7 days off sick
If you’re off work sick for more than 7 days, your employer will usually ask for a fit note (or Statement of Fitness for Work) from a GP or hospital doctor. Fit notes are sometimes referred to as medical statements or a doctor’s note.
Why is there a payment?
The preparations of these letters or reports is not covered by the NHS. The doctor must complete these in their own time as such there is a payable fee. The doctors will take their time to review the medical records to ensure the information provided is correct. These may then be dictated and subsequently needed to be typed and printed
How long will it take?
Private letters do not take priority over NHS work so may take some time to prepare. Please allow at least two weeks. In genuinely urgent cases we will do our best to meet your deadline however we cannot promise this. If you cannot wait, we will refund your fee if the letter has not yet been written.
‘The Doctor has to write these exact words…’
We’d like to apologise that we cannot usually accept requests for the letter to be written in a specific way. The letter will however be written by what is supported in your medical records.
Please take a look at the form below. Once you fill this in, we will aim to contact you to confirm the arrangements.
We have a team dedicated to organising the insurance documents and medicals. They’ll liaise with the doctors who aim to complete the forms as soon as they can (though it can take up to 28 days in some instances from when the clinician receives the form).
These include:
- medical reports
- examinations for employers
- insurance companies
- private prescriptions
- travel agents
- HGV licences
- private letters
Common Ailments through Pharmacy
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.
- 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