It may be a surprise to Members after yesterday, but I will be supporting this motion, I welcome this motion by the Welsh Conservatives today. But I must say to the Member who opened today's debate, he might be getting a little bit ahead of himself if he thinks there are going to be no amendments to future debates here. But, on cross-party support, I can see the Members for Preseli Pembrokeshire and South Wales West who have been into the Labour tie shop this afternoon, so, in the spirit of cross-party support, I certainly will be supporting today's debate. [Laughter.]

The Member who opened the debate, Russell George, did say some very good things in his opening remarks, particularly on communication. Communication is needed. We have seen examples of poor communication in the health service in recent times, and we need to make sure this is communicated better, that this new service is communicated to all residents across Wales. He also mentioned e-prescribing, as did Rhun ap Iorwerth, and I have to agree, three to five years is too slow. It is too slow, and we must do more to tackle that.

It's always a great pleasure of mine to visit and meet pharmacists across Alyn and Deeside, and I've made many visits during my time as a Member of the Senedd, and I look forward to many more of them, because we owe a great debt of gratitude to pharmacists and staff in pharmacies across Wales for the work they did throughout the pandemic, but also the work they continue to do as well.

The motion quite clearly states the worrying and shocking statistics from the survey that was carried out with regard to well-being. I just want to read out two of the stats in there—one is in the motion—that nine out of 10 respondents were at high risk of burn-out, and that seven out of 10 reported that their mental health and well-being had been negatively affected by their work or study. This is a situation that cannot continue. The impact it has on well-being is a serious risk to these workers and to their families as well, and to the future of our pharmacy services in Wales. And, of course, this also raises then, doesn't it, concerns around patient safety. Minister, inevitably, working long hours without taking a physical or mental break can lead to that increase in dispensing errors and, of course, other patient safety issues.

So, I would be grateful if the Minister could respond to those particular points: how we can tackle burn-out. I will say in closing that I do agree with James Evans on his recommendation of degree-level apprenticeships. This is something that we should be looking at a lot wider, but certainly in the pharmacy service, and if that can be supported by the Government, I would very much welcome that being addressed in your response to today's debate. But, I thank all our pharmacists and all our pharmacy staff and I do thank the Welsh Conservatives for tabling today's motion. Diolch yn fawr.