Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 3:01 pm on 3 July 2019.
I completely agree and it's part of our challenge: we're generally trying to persuade people that they don't need to go to the doctor and to come away with a set of pills to have a good service. Often, it is about persuading people there are different options, including self-care, and different ways to access healthcare as well. With the common ailments service that we've introduced, in just the first five months of this year, approximately 20,000 people have visited pharmacies across Wales as part of that service. Around 80 per cent of those people would otherwise have gone to see their GP, and, more than that, the pilot within Betsi Cadwaladr on the sore throat treat and test service is again a real opportunity to roll out exactly the sort of practice that you recognised. It goes back to the question earlier from Paul Davies about our community pharmacy services and building on them—sorry, it was Neil Hamilton's question, with a supplementary from your party colleague, but there is, again, general agreement that it's the right thing to do. There's much more gain to be made from doing it, and, actually, much better access for the public to healthcare services.