I want to thank my colleagues Russell and Darren, obviously, for bringing this debate forward today.

Pharmacies played a crucial role during the pandemic, and they have been vital, as has already been outlined, in supporting primary and secondary care. They have supported the national roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccine, helping to get jabs in arms so that the United Kingdom could get back to normal and move on from the pandemic as quickly as possible. They have, very importantly, as has already been outlined—and I think this is a crucial, crucial role—reduced the visits to GP surgeries. They've played an enormous part in that, particularly during the pandemic, at a time of intense pressure on the NHS, as my colleague Russell George outlined earlier with the stats that he provided.

And as Russell also said, I've seen first-hand the work that they've done, and as Russell said, they play an enormous role in relieving GPs and it is so vital, as other colleagues have outlined, that we have awareness of what exactly they do and all the roles that they play. They do do an incredible amount. I visited alongside Russell Goodway, who is the chief executive of Community Pharmacy Wales, the Evans Pharmacy in Cwmcarn in my region, and I was—. It became very apparent how absolutely vital the service that they provide is in that community. I also discussed the impact of the pandemic and the increasingly important roles that pharmacies play within their communities. However, we now see pharmacies, as has been said already by Jack Sargeant just now, under a huge amount of stress and some at breaking point. A recent Royal Pharmaceutical Society survey found that nine in 10 respondents were at breaking point. This obviously can't continue. Mental health, as we all know, is absolutely fundamentally important, and we need targeted and proper support and investment from the Welsh Government in this regard. 

A good start would be to significantly increase the number of training spots for pharmacists, to support them, to fill the many voids that we see popping up throughout Wales, and as my colleague James Evans just outlined, I think degree apprenticeships for them is a brilliant idea. Not only do we need to see more trained pharmacists here in Wales, but Wales's pharmacists also face levels of bureaucracy like nowhere else in the UK, and they have to cope with the most basic of technology, which I also saw on my visit. I actually worked in a pharmacy in Usk, many moons ago, myself, delivering drugs to people—the right sort. [Laughter.] Not the 'fun' ones. But I did see first-hand there that they were still using fax machines. I mean, it was just ridiculous in this day and age.

So, the technology, it's absolutely fundamental that that needs to change. But e-prescribing, as has already been said, and the sharing of medical records, for example, is not routinely available here in Wales. It's very welcome, the Government's commitment to it, as outlined by my colleagues, but, by contrast, England and Scotland had both been e-prescribing over a decade ago. It's a shame that this Welsh Government is so far behind in that regard, and I do reiterate the calls from Russell George that they are speeded up in that way. The Welsh Labour Government has failed to modernise our pharmacies and bring them into the twenty-first century. Instead, we're left with an old, bureaucratic, heavily stressed system. Quite simply, our pharmacists and patients deserve better. Our communities need our local pharmacies. Thank you.