Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement regarding the National Pharmacy Association's decision to potentially limit service hours for pharmacies across England, Wales and Northern Ireland in response to the UK Government's autumn budget?
The Welsh Government values the role community pharmacies play as an integral part of primary care in Wales. The hard work and contribution of pharmacists and all community pharmacy staff is appreciated by both the Welsh Government and NHS Wales. This is why we are and are providing record levels of investment in the sector, including an additional £9.9m this year.
We are committed to supporting the sector and to continuing working with Community Pharmacy Wales, the statutory representative body of every community pharmacy in Wales, to secure its long-term sustainability.
The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) is a trade body which represents some independent pharmacies. It is not a trade union and does not represent all independent pharmacies or larger multiple pharmacies many of which provide additional hours in the evenings and at weekends. Around half of NPA members in Wales chose not to participate in the advisory ballot which was announced on 19 September.
Pharmacies are contractually required to open for a minimum of 40 ‘core’ hours each week. In addition, some provide additional ‘supplementary hours’ at other times. A pharmacy cannot change or reduce its core hours without the agreement of health boards and must provide three months’ notice of any change to its supplementary opening hours.
In the event a pharmacy chooses to reduce its supplementary opening hours, arrangements are in place for health boards to address any gap in the provision of pharmacy services, this might cause.