The Welsh government has awarded community pharmacies in Wales an additional £6.3m in core funding, CPW told C+D.
This funding, which is part of the guaranteed community pharmacy contractual framework (CPCF), contributes to a 5% increase in funding compared to 2022/23, CPW said today (January 3).
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It added that the increase brings baseline CPCF funding excluding margin for Welsh pharmacies to £165.1m per year for 2023/24 – up £7.9m (5%) on baseline funding excluding margin for 2022/23.
The increase was £6.3m in additional recurrent funding compared to what had been previously agreed for 2023/24, CPW explained.
CPW said that contractors will start to receive the increased funding in the next scheduled payments.
240,000 consultations in 2022/23
The news comes as the Welsh government has published new statistics highlighting the impact of the new Welsh pharmacy contract, which was reformed in April 2022.
The new contract increased funding for pharmacies to offer services including treatment for “common minor ailments and some forms of emergency and regular contraception”.
Figures published by the Welsh government last month (December 20) show that in 2022/23, Welsh community pharmacies provided “nearly 240,000 consultations for common ailments”.
“This is an increase of 74% from 2021/22”, the year before the new contract was introduced, “and more than four times (or 454%) as many consultations as five years ago”, the government said.
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It added that “more than 190,000 different people used the service during 2022/23”.
The government reported that the most frequent reason for a common ailments service consultation was bacterial conjunctivitis, for which there were “just over 40,000”, while the second most common was for hay fever and the third was “sore throat and tonsillitis”.
However, the statistics showed that there were just 17 consultations for colic in 2022/23.
Meanwhile, next month will see the introduction of a common ailments service in England, with Pharmacy First set to launch on February 1.
