Wes Mountain/The Pharmaceutical Journal
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) has launched new goals for 2025–2028, aimed at advancing pharmacy services in Wales, which forms the next steps of the country’s long-term 2030 vision ‘Pharmacy: delivering a healthier Wales’.
On 25 September 2025, the RPS said the goals build on the “remarkable progress” pharmacy teams have made since the original vision was launched in 2019.
“With investment and workforce development, patients now benefit from more clinical services closer to home, while the rollout of electronic prescribing is underway across all settings,” it said.
The new goals include embedding prevention and wellbeing; delivering electronic prescribing across Wales; transforming aseptic services; increasing patient access to pharmacist independent prescribers; expanding the skill mix of pharmacy teams; and creating innovative career pathways that support multidisciplinary care.
The RPS added: “The 2025–2028 goals… were shaped through engagement with more than 500 pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, support staff, students, patient representatives and healthcare partners. They focus on spreading and scaling services to ensure equitable access to care, wherever people live and however they access them.”
Elen Jones, acting director of pharmacy at the RPS, said: “This is an exciting moment for pharmacy as we begin another three-year commitment to transformation. The 2025–2028 goals take us closer to our 2030 vision, while recognising the pressures the workforce continues to face. Thanks to the passion and dedication of pharmacy teams across Wales, I am confident we are on track.
“Progress has only been possible through the collective efforts of pharmacy teams and our partners. The ‘Pharmacy: delivering a healthier Wales’ programme delivery board, supported by four themed subgroups, has driven momentum and kept goals in sharp focus. Their diverse membership has ensured our work reflects the needs of patients and the whole pharmacy workforce.”
Speaking at the ‘Pharmacy: delivering a healthier Wales’ conference, held in Cardiff on 25 September 2025, Jonathan Simms, chair of the Welsh Pharmaceutical Committee, said: “As chair of the Welsh Pharmaceutical Committee, I know I speak for all members of the committee when I say how incredibly proud we are of the progress and commitment of the profession in driving forward this vision.”
“We look forward to seeing the continued progress of the profession through the delivery of the 2028 goals, as we drive forward to our overarching 2030 aims together,” he added.
The vision was last refreshed in 2022, with previous goals set to be achieved by December 2025, which included a review of how the skills of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians can be more effectively used to support hospital patients; a review of how automation, electronic prescribing and pharmacogenomics can help transform the way pharmacy professionals deliver care; and to explore how supporting research and development in pharmacy practice can encourage innovation in pharmaceutical care.
On 25 September 2025, the Welsh government announced that the electronic prescription service (EPS) is now available in seven in ten pharmacies.
Also speaking at the conference, health secretary Jeremy Miles said that more than a million prescriptions are transferred electronically between GPs and pharmacies every month, which represents a major step forward in healthcare digitalisation.
The Welsh government has committed to bringing forward the full rollout of EPS to November 2026.
