Welsh government
Jeremy Miles, Welsh cabinet secretary for health and social care, has praised the “incredible” work of pharmacists, in an exclusive interview with The Pharmaceutical Journal.
Speaking to The Pharmaceutical Journal after his speech at the ‘Pharmacy: delivering a healthier Wales’ conference, held in Cardiff on 25 September 2025, Miles said: “Whether they’re working in acute settings, community pharmacy, or in an MDT [multidisciplinary team], the incredible work which [pharmacists] are doing, day in, day out, is absolutely at the heart of the NHS, but also at the heart of this government’s approach to reforming the NHS.”
“It’s about keeping people healthy and getting them better, faster. And I think there is a huge role which pharmacists are playing in a range of settings, and I want to see that grow, and be supported,” he added.
Miles also spoke of the “good relationship that I think we have with the sector”.
“We’ve seen over a number of years how that has really enabled us to reform the NHS more widely,” he added.
The success of ‘A healthier Wales: long term plan for health and social care‘, “requires a very strong sense of shared values and partnership, which can be sustained over a number of years”, Miles said.
“’Pharmacy: delivering a healthier Wales‘ has been absolutely critical in providing us with that shared vision. That really has underpinned, I think, the work that we’re able to do, because it draws on essentially a unified professional view among a range of pharmacy professionals.
“I and my predecessors have been able to introduce the reforms that we have, secure in the knowledge that there’s a shared professional consensus about the direction of travel.”
Miles also praised the achievements of the common ailments service, which has demonstrated “an incredible level of success in quite a short period of time”.
”The service is now available in 99% of community pharmacies, and that last year around 470,000 consultations were made in pharmacies for common ailments.
“Critically, I think it’s enabling us to be very clear with the public about where best to go for the sorts of things that a pharmacy can help them with.”
“That’s quite a challenge, actually: to be able to re-describe to the public where they should aim for the kind of support which pharmacists can give,” he said.
“But as the scheme is growing — and we can see its success already — I think that will help shift public perceptions of where the public should go when they’re feeling unwell.”
Asked about whether the sector could expect to see more funding next year, Miles said: “We’ve been growing community pharmacy funding over the last eight years. It’s now probably worth about 24% more than it was. That includes funding for the first national community pharmacy prescribing service in the UK.
“We’ve also been able to make funding interventions at particularly challenging times,” he added referencing previous stabilisation payments and additional funding in June to support pay awards.
“[The government] want to continue to make sure that community pharmacy has the resources it needs.”
“My vision of community pharmacy — and I’ve seen this at first hand in visiting pharmacists — is that we want to ask pharmacies to do more and more in supporting patients and making sure care can be provided locally in a way which is professional, convenient and efficient. We know that is how pharmacies are providing this care, and we want to make sure that it’s properly resourced.”
Addressing delegates at the conference, Miles said the event was “an opportunity to reflect on and, importantly, celebrate the huge amount that we have achieved together, and look forward to the next set of developments that will support improvement in the health and wellbeing of communities right across Wales”.
He also pointed out that more than 40% of community pharmacies in Wales now have a pharmacist prescriber and nearly half of all pharmacists in Wales are able to prescribe.
“That’s fantastic, and it’s a far higher proportion than in Britain as a whole … There are now more than 200 pharmacist prescribers directly employed in general practice, more than double the number we had in 2019.
“[In hospitals,] where the benefits of access to clinical pharmacy services have been felt more many years, the roles of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians are also evolving to better align continuously with our priorities but also changing patient needs. Pharmacy teams now routinely work in emergency departments and other urgent care settings” he added.
Miles also said that he had just approved an outline business case for the construction of a purpose-built aseptic medicine production facility in the south east of Wales.
“This would replace ageing hospital facilities; it will help drive regional working and transform the ability and capacity to manufacture and prepare systemic anticancer therapies, parenteral nutrition and other essential sterile medicines.”
Miles also announced that he had commissioned the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) to review the roles of pharmacy professionals in general practice in Wales, with work on the review starting in autumn 2025.
Following the announcement, the RPS said the review “will examine how pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and wider pharmacy teams are currently working in and alongside general practice, and make evidence-based recommendations to maximise their impact in improving patient care, safety and outcomes”.
The statement added that there will shortly be a series of engagement events open to all general practice pharmacy professionals in Wales.
Ankish Patel, expert lead author of the review, said: “[The review was] a valuable opportunity to highlight the impact of the workforce, while also gathering insight from pharmacy across other sectors, the MDT and patients.
“Together, we can set out a clear vision for how pharmacy professionals in general practice can best support patients and the wider priorities of the NHS in Wales.”
Elen Jones, outgoing RPS director for Wales, said: “The review was another important milestone on our journey to deliver the ambitions of ‘Pharmacy: delivering a healthier Wales’.
“Just as the review of clinical pharmacy services in NHS hospitals in Wales, undertaken by RPS has helped provide a blueprint for transforming clinical pharmacy services for patients in secondary care, this work will provide the evidence and recommendations needed to strengthen the role of pharmacy professionals working within general practice.”
