9. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on any discussions with health boards over the safer use of prescription medicines? OAQ(5)0086(HWS)

I thank the Member for her question. It is the responsibility of the prescribing healthcare professional to ensure an individual understands what it being prescribed and how it should be taken. Community pharmacists have an important role in ensuring the patient understands the medication regime at the point of dispensing.

Thank you, Cabinet Secretary, for that response. Can I highlight some work that’s going on in Cwm Taf Local Health Board at the moment, who’ve been running a campaign to promote public education and awareness of the effective use of prescription medicines over about the last 15 or 16 months? Since the health board started its campaign, support and advice has been given to more than 7,000 individual regular medicine users around clearing out old medicines, identifying, if any, which patients are not taking prescribed medicines, bringing medicines into hospital if admitted, and taking when on holiday. One impact of the campaign has been the return of unwanted medicines in a quantity that would fill three double-decker buses.

This may also highlight an issue around over-prescription, as well as patients not taking their medication, for whatever reasons there might be. Of course, the costs associated with that would also need to be addressed. But would the Cabinet Secretary join me in applauding this excellent campaign on the part of Cwm Taf university health board and encourage other health boards to consider similar initiatives?

Yes, I’m happy to do so. It’s a very visible figure to think about—enough to fill three double-decker buses. We recognise that there are real challenges here and real areas for further improvement. The points you make are about old medicines and people returning those so that they can be safely disposed of, and, in particular, points about polypharmacy and understanding how different medications interact with each other or whether they’re actually counteracting the things they’re trying to treat. It’s why I’ve been encouraged by the fact that primary care clusters have indeed hired and actually employed a range of clinical pharmacists to do this for them, so it’s freed up GP time as well as improving the quality of care that the individual receives.

It also goes back to the previous question about making sure that, within the community pharmacy system, we reward quality, and this is part of a quality measure to understand not just how we dispense by volume, but to improve the quality of care that is delivered. In fact, Cwm Taf have taken a lead in this, for example, with their electronic discharge letters from the hospital service, as well. So, there is a real gain to be made with discharge from the hospital setting, through the hospital pharmacy service, and a bigger role for community pharmacies there as well. So, I’m encouraged by where we are and where we’re going, but this does highlight that there’s certainly much more improvement we could and should make, and I think individual people see a real benefit as a result of that.