The Pharmaceutical Journal
The Welsh and Scottish governments have written to health and social care secretary Matt Hancock to request a meeting where they can “talk practically about preparations for Brexit”.
Vaughan Gething, the Welsh cabinet secretary for health and social care, told The Pharmaceutical Journal that a joint request had been made and that “we’re waiting for a response from the UK government to our suggestion”.
Gething said government officials were “talking between each other, and the chief pharmacist is taking part in some of those conversations across the UK”.
“But I think that there is room for politicians in all the national devolved governments in the UK to have a conversation that puts aside our politics and practically looks at what we could and should do to safeguard each of the groups of people that we are responsible for,” he added.
Asked whether pharmacists in Wales could expect to see an increase in funding per head of population in the future, Gething said that Wales had already invested more money to allow pharmacy to undertake a wider role, particularly through the Choose Pharmacy scheme. “I think we’re actually in a good place and, to be fair, when I go to community pharmacy events I don’t hear pharmacy contractors saying, ‘the problem is you’re not giving us enough money’.”
Gething also spoke about how pharmacists can support winter planning at the eighth Welsh Medicines Safety Conference, held in Cardiff on 22 November 2018, pointing out that the department deliberately chose to launch its Choose Well for Winter campaign in a community pharmacy.
“We’re trying to make it easier for the citizen in the middle of all of this, and make good use of the skills of pharmacists,” he said.
