Welsh Pharmacy Board meeting: 20 June 2018

The Welsh Pharmacy Board (WPB) held its summer meeting at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS)’s Welsh headquarters in Pontprennau, Cardiff, on 20 June 2018.

Following the recent elections, the board welcomed two new members: Jodie Gwenter, education and training lead at Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board; and Dylan Lloyd Jones, community pharmacist and GP support pharmacist. The board also welcomed back re-elected members Cheryl Way and Mike Curson.

Welsh Directorate update

Several meetings have been held, and more are planned, ahead of RPS Wales’s publication of a palliative and end-of-life care policy later in 2018. These include discussions with the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges to discuss joint work, and with Community Pharmacy Wales, which represents pharmacy owners in Wales. Member views are currently being canvassed through a survey, and will inform the final policy.

Welsh Directorate representatives attended the launch of the Welsh government’s Health, Social Care and Sport Committee’s report into the use of antipsychotics in care homes, which makes several recommendations called for by RPS Wales. A meeting has been scheduled with Angela Burns, health spokesperson for the Welsh Conservatives, and a meeting with Rhun ap Iorwerth, health spokesperson for Plaid Cymru, is awaiting confirmation.

A working group of board members and RPS staff was due to meet by the end of June 2018 to develop an implementation plan to improve wellbeing in the pharmacy workforce. A member survey, canvassing areas of concern, will inform the plan.

Local engagement

Jodie Williamson, professional development and engagement lead at RPS Wales, said she had delivered lunchtime revalidation sessions at Prince Philip Hospital, Llanelli, on 30 April 2018. These were attended by around 30 pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. The 2018 Annual Professional Debate, delivered with Wales Centre for Pharmacy Professional Education, was held in Cardiff on 17 April 2018. Speakers at the event — Suzanne Scott-Thomas, chair of the WPB; Martin Astbury, English pharmacy board member and former RPS president, and Lowri Haf Puw and Gwenno Williams, both preregistration trainees, had presented cases for and against changes to supervision legislation. The event was attended by more than 80 delegates including Andrew Evans, chief pharmaceutical officer for Wales.

RPS Local events are continuing to attract positive feedback, especially around the subject of revalidation.

Policy and consultations

RPS Wales was asked to provide information to the National Assembly for Wales’s Petition’s Committee, relating to a petition calling for greater support for patients experiencing prescription drug dependence and withdrawal and to the National Assembly for Wales’s Public Accounts Committee inquiry into NHS informatics services.

In preparation for RPS Wales’s palliative and end-of-life care policy, a meeting was held on 9 May 2018 with Catrin Edwards, secretariat of the Welsh Assembly Cross-Party Group on Hospices and Palliative Care, to share draft themes and recommendations. Edwards assured the Society that pharmacy would have a prominent place in the group’s report, due to be published in July 2018. RPS Wales also met Mark Isherwood, chair of the cross-party group, who was supportive of the proposal that patients in all local health boards have access to specialist palliative care pharmacists.

Agreement has been obtained for an RPS slot at a cross-party group meeting later in 2018, after the policy has launched.

Richard Hain, consultant and clinical lead in paediatric palliative care at the University of South Wales and the Children’s Hospital, Cardiff, has also expressed support for RPS Wales’ work in this area. In a meeting with RPS Wales, Hain, who is also the all-Wales clinical lead on paediatric care, said that currently there are no pharmacists embedded in the multidisciplinary he works with who have specific responsibility for paediatric palliative care and this is something he would like to see.

• The date of the next Welsh Pharmacy Board meeting was set for 10 October 2018.