Call:  01437 776354

Email:  pps@pembrokeshire.gov.uk

Bowel Screening Wales expands screening programme to include 51-54 year olds.

As of  2nd October 2024, Bowel Screening Wales will start to invite people aged 51, 52, 53 and 54 for bowel cancer screening for the first time. 

The programme will be rolled out to the newly eligible age group gradually over the next 12 months.

Bowel cancer is the second most common cause of death from cancer in Wales. Over 2,000 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer every year in Wales, and it results in over 900 deaths. Evidence shows that screening people at a younger age enables more bowel cancers to be picked up at an earlier stage, when treatment is likely to be more effective and survival chances improved.

The screening test used is the highly effective Faecal Immunochemical Test (FIT), which is simple for people to use at home, requiring just one sample of poo.  The test looks for tiny traces of blood (haemoglobin) in the sample, which are too small to be seen but can be an indicator of bowel cancer and benign polyps. 

An invitation and test kit will be arriving via post to those who are eligible over the next 12 months. The home test kit is easy to complete and to send to the laboratory for analysis.

If you receive an invitation, please do take up the offer.  It could save your life. 

More information on Bowel Screening Wales can be found here.

For further information email Melissa here, or if you would prefer to book your place, click here.

For further information in English, please click here, or if you would prefer it in Welsh, please click yma.

Recently diabetic eye screening has changed.  Please click here to view what changes have occurred and how they affect you.

Hywel Dda Community Health Council
Plans and Priorities
2023-2024.

In April 2023 the CHC will be replaced by Llais, the new Citizen’s Voice Body (CVB) for health and social care. Llais will reflect the views and represent the interest of people living in Wales about health and social care.

To help Llais identify its priorities in the first year, we want to hear your views on the things that matter most to people in the Hywel Dda area about health and social care.

Please provide us with your views to the following questions by 28 February 2023. We will share your feedback with Llais to inform and influence its plan for 2023-2024

We would be grateful if you could share our leaflets / questionnaires with your community and networking groups and if possible, publish on your website. Please do not hesitate to contact the office should you wish to further paper copies of the leaflet and questionnaires.

Details and links on how to feedback your views are also available on the poster and questionnaire.

Link to the questionnaire here.

Meic is the information, advice and advocacy service for children and young people in Wales aged 0-25. It is a bilingual service that can be contacted, confidentially and free, by phone (08088023456), text (84001) or online chat through our website. The advisers who work on the helpline have a good understanding of the challenges facing young carers and can provided information and advice on their rights etc. In addition, they can support them to access specialist young carer services, as well as advocate on their behalf to professionals involved in their lives.

The Meic website also includes lots of interesting articles  and has a professional section with lots of useful resources. They have lots of engagement with children, young people and professionals on their social media pages on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter and you can find some of the videos they’ve created on their YouTube channel. 

Meic operate between 8am and midnight every single day of the year.  

The Wales NHS 111 website now provides information on waiting times by speciality at each health board. Whilst this doesn’t tell individuals where they are on the waiting list it does provide up to date information on the range of current waiting times for the speciality and health board for which they are waiting.

Ultimately, this aims to help people to understand how long they may need to wait. This is similar to the system in place in England but goes further in providing a more realistic understanding of the range of wait times from the average to where the majority have waited up to.

Anyone can access this information from the 111 website and we would encourage you to use this tool through the course of your contact with patients as a means of managing expectations and concerns around waiting times. You may also wish to directly signpost individuals to this information when they contact your practice seeking information on planned care waiting times.

The information will be updated monthly and provides additional information to support people whilst they are waiting, so is a useful tool in helping patients understanding of the position.