The investment in clinical services in community pharmacy in Wales will create a sustainable network that cannot survive on dispensing income alone, according to Welsh Government chief pharmaceutical officer Andrew Evans.

Consumer habits are changing, he said at the Pharmacy Show on Monday October 17. Dispensing prescriptions on their own is no longer enough. “In 10 or 15 years' time, people will not want to use pharmacies for what they see as a transactional service. It has to be about quality, personalisation and services.”

The development of pharmaceutical care and clinical services in Wales creates an environment in which the sustainability of the sector is guaranteed in the longer term “because it makes community pharmacy an investable proposition in the view of the NHS and Welsh Government,” he said.

The changes are underpinned by comprehensive funding reforms that will increase the investment in clinical services – by 2025 around £50m will go directly into clinical service provision. This represents more than a five-fold increase in 10 years. A total of £20m alone will be allocated to independent prescribing by 2024, said Mr Evans.

However, the proportion of monies allocated to dispensing out of total funding is getting lower year-on-year, he continued. “It will be lower than ever by 2024-25 and our long-term aspiration is for a 50-50 split between dispensing and services funding.”

The change in funding flows will be “challenging” for some contractors, Mr Evans conceded. “It is absolutely the case that some of our most successful contractors have built really successful businesses around the thing that the NHS [in the past] incentivised them to do, which was to dispense as many prescriptions as possible.”

“Shifting wholesale to a clinical model has been really tough for them. However, we are trying to do it in a way that’s pragmatic, so we have been able to grow investment overall. We are not asking people to cut their funding in one element [of the contract] overnight.”

We are seeing some attrition in the market in terms of pharmacy numbers, he conceded. “Some people have left but we are also seeing a buoyant market with lots of people coming in, particular younger pharmacists as independent contractors who absolutely buy into our aspiration and understand what we’re trying to achieve.”

Pharmacy owners are smart people. If they are given the right incentives, they’ll make the transition if they want to, said Mr Evans.