Sexual Health, HIV and Family Planning Department, Menai Unit, Ysbyty Gwynedd
One of our clerks will take your details on the phone.
Any personal details we take are completely confidential. Your records are identified and stored under a specific number, rather than under your name. Departmental records and computer information are kept TOTALLY SEPARATE from the main hospital records. Only staffs in this department have access to your records. We do not routinely contact your GP following your appointment (unless they have written us a referral letter). Consequently you do not have to have any concerns about confidentiality. Some data that you provide may be used anonymously by the National Public Health Service to help monitor trends in sexual infections.
UNDER 18: Please look at the Sexual health services: your rights – Brook website for more information about your confidentiality rights for specific information about your rights when using sexual health and family planning services.
We will also ask how you want us to contact you for appointment reminders (text only) and/or results etc. This can be by telephone (home or mobile), letter (what address) or you do not want us to contact you at all (you will be responsible for following up your results etc).
The clerk will ask some brief (and potentially very personal sexual information, even if you are calling for contraception) to allow them to best direct your call/appointment to the appropriate team member and in the right time frame.
Your first appointment will be a booked telephone appointment with either a nurse or a doctor. During COVID times, all our initial assessments are only done on the telephone, we do not see walk-ins. This call will be from an anonymous number.
We ask all patients a standard list of questions, even if you only want contraception. The questions we ask can be very detailed and of a personal intimate (sexual) nature- what are your symptoms or concerns, about your sexual partners and practices, any sexual assaults, dates of your periods (female), lifestyle (e.g. smoking, alcohol and drug taking) and your birth sex and current gender identity. We will also ask your general medical history, medication and allergies (as we have no access to your GP or hospital records).
UNDER 18: We ask additional questions about your wellbeing to check you do not require extra support.
Currently we will also ask COVID questions.
This detailed questioning enables us to decide on the best option to manage your symptoms/concerns - on-line testing (Frisky Wales) and/ or on-line contraception information and/or treat you over the phone (posting prescriptions if necessary) and/or booking you in for a face to face consultation in the clinic.
We have male and females doctors, however they do not work every day in every clinic and therefore we cannot guarantee who you will be seen by.
If you are coming for sexual health symptoms you will be asked to undress your lower half to enable full examination and swabs to be taken (all behind a curtain).
Examination and swabs may be of your vagina/cervix (female), penis (male), rectum (both), mouth (both) and a urine sample.
Swabs for; chlamydia, gonorrhoea, thrush/candida, Bacterial Vaginosis and herpes.
Bloods for; HIV, syphilis and hepatitis B/C.
We only have female doctors, nurses and health care workers in this clinic (a female chaperone is present during coil insertions and one is available for other procedures if you want). We may have male and female observers (please let us know if you prefer not to).
We are able to fit and remove both types of coils, implants and diaphragms. We also have the depo-injection, Sayana press self administered depo and various contraception pills in our stock.
We have some medication stock in the department to give you. We are also able to write a prescription for either the hospital pharmacy or the community pharmacies (depending on what the medication is).
A limited number of tests are done in the department and you can wait for these results (which may take up to 20 minutes to process). These are urine test for non-sexual infections, pregnancy test, point of care HIV testing (specific cases only) and examining certain samples under the microscope.
Most swabs and blood tests are sent to the laboratory and can take up to 2 weeks to come back. We usually wait for these results before deciding on the right treatment for you. We may ask you not to have any sex until the results are back.
You will be contacted with the results (negative or positive) by your preferred contact method within 2 weeks. Please contact us if you have not heard from us after 2 weeks.
Bangor SHS & your clinic number- Please contact the clinic to discuss your test results on 03000 850074.
The text will never give your actual result. The option (1) above will either be a positive test result or that a test needs to be repeated as it wasn’t processed properly or because the results were inconclusive. You will speak to one of our nurses who will explain everything, answer any questions you have and organise any necessary medication and/or follow up.
We do not routinely do smears. Any smears done in the clinic are sent to Cervical Screening Wales laboratory and they will contact you (and your GP) with the results, by letter, in 2-6 weeks time. If you have not received the results by 6 weeks, please contact your GP, not our department.
A limited number of tests are done in the department and you can wait for these results (which may take up to 20 minutes to process). These are urine test for non-sexual infections, pregnancy test, point of care HIV testing (specific cases only) and examining certain samples under the microscope.
Most swabs and blood tests are sent to the laboratory and can take up to 2 weeks to come back. We usually wait for these results before deciding on the right treatment for you. We may ask you not to have any sex until the results are back.
You will be contacted with the results (negative or positive) by your preferred contact method within 2 weeks. Please contact us if you have not heard from us after 2 weeks.
If your result is positive for a sexual infection we would like to prevent it spreading to other people. We will treat you and inform you how not to pass it on. We will also try to test and/or treat those whom you have previously had sex with (usually anyone within the last 6 months). We only contact people with your permission. This can be done in various way, some of which are anonymous i.e. the person doesn’t have to know it is you who has the positive result. Our Health Advisors will talk with you to see what you would prefer to do.
If you have any further questions, please ask a member of staff.
Thank you