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The Welsh Government has publicly announced that pharmacies in Wales are to provide two new national services to treat sore throats and UTIs.

The Welsh Government says it is investing an extra £6m in community pharmacies to make the STTT and UTI services available in 99 per cent of pharmacies ahead of the winter.

Health Secretary Jeremy Miles said: "Community pharmacies play a vital role in providing healthcare across Wales. This extra investment ensures they can continue serving communities effectively. These programmes are part of our commitment to ensuring people can receive care closer to home, expanding access to these services will mean even more people in Wales can access the right care, in the right place, at the right time.”

Pharmacists in Wales were advised of the development in a letter to contractors sent on 2 April. In return for a "stability payment" of £6 million, Community Pharmacy Wales said it had agreed that the STTT and UTI services would be a mandatory component of the Common Ailments Service.

Those pharmacies not registered to deliver both STTT service by 3 June and the UTI service by 1 October respectively, will be unable to provide CAS after those dates.

Contractors were also told that pending the conclusion of a piece of explorative policy work, there will be a further expansion of CAS to include the treatment of additional ailments such as shingles and impetigo. 

The introduction of additional ailments within CAS will require action on the part of other stakeholders such as Health Education and Improvement Wales and Digital Health and Care Wales, CPW warned.

“All stakeholders will work together to ensure whatever can feasibly be implemented is with a focus on the ailment(s) which are expected to release the greatest amount of capacity in primary care this winter as the priority,” said CPW.