Written - The Emerging Themes Report of the Task and Finish Group to Review Pharmacy Provision in Wales

This statement sets out the conclusions contained in the initial report of the expert group I commissioned to review pharmacy services across Wales as part of the Welsh Assembly Government’s commitment to develop Pharmacy services as part of an integrated NHS in Wales.

The group was set up in June 2009 under the chairmanship of Chris Martin, Pharmacist and Chair of Hywel Dda LHB. Mel Evans, independent member of the National Advisory Board and former Chief Executive of Rhondda Cynon Taff LHB is also a member of the group. The Task and Finish Group is able to call upon the advice and expertise of its other members who are drawn from a wide range of disciplines from within the Pharmacy network and who are supported by a secondee to the Welsh Assembly Government.

The Task and Finish Group will look at all aspects of pharmaceutical services in Wales but has reported initially on the current Community Pharmacy contract and how Community Pharmacists can play a greater role in delivering high quality healthcare to Welsh patients. Developments include helping patients to manage their medication better; working with the hospital sector to ensure that changes made to patients’ medicines in hospital are followed up in the community;  and standardising the availability and specifications of enhanced  services across Local Health Board areas, raising standards and ensuring that patients across Wales can benefit from a wider range of high quality services.

In addition, the Group has highlighted a package of measures intended to reduce the amount of medication wasted each year in Wales. These measures include increasing the amount of Repeat Dispensing, moving to a 28 day prescribing cycle and running a coordinated national campaign against wasting medication. Waste reduction schemes already running in areas of Wales will be evaluated to see if they can be rolled out nationally.

The Group has looked in detail at Welsh Assembly Government policy documents dating back to 2002 and has also reviewed the key aims of the 2005 Community Pharmacy Contract, one aspect of which was to develop more clinical services within the Pharmacy network. It concludes that the main barrier to progress has been the lack of a system to effectively implement pharmaceutical service policies  within appropriate timescales. The Group’s main recommendation therefore is to create such a system and thereby ensure the continuous development of pharmacy services to meet the changing needs of patients in Wales.

Other recommendations include:

•  Streamlining the claims process to improve administrative efficiency;
•  Reviewing the IT strategy for community pharmacy and ensuring that any payments to contractors result in clearly defined benefits to the NHS;
•  Scoping the need for a Welsh Pharmacy Contract and identifying the resources needed to develop this; and 
•  Fully scoping the resource implications of all recommendations.

 The Task and Finish group will now continue to develop its recommendations in advance of submitting a final report to me in December 2009. Upon publication of the current  Emerging Themes document on the Health of Wales Information Service (HOWIS) website, they will also engage with key stakeholders to ensure that these initial recommendations are acted on. I will expect the NHS in Wales to be fully supportive of the work this group is undertaking.

I am keen to ensure that we strengthen the existing relationship between pharmacists and the public, harness the potential of Community Pharmacy for improving outcomes for patients and demonstrate the importance of Community Pharmacists as an integral part of health provision.