Funding for Welsh pharmacy ‘non-negotiable’, sector leaders warn ahead of Senedd elections

Political parties in Wales are being urged to support community pharmacy and commit to boosting funding for the sector so it can manage rising cost pressures and increased demand.

Ahead of the upcoming Senedd elections on 7 May, the Company Chemists’ Association (CCA) has warned that investment is 'non-negotiable' if the next Welsh Government wants to improve patient access and support the NHS.

In its 2026 pharmacy manifesto for Wales, the CCA revealed that due to cost and demand pressures the Welsh pharmacy network had contracted by 4% in 2023/24.

Pharmacies continue to absorb considerable cost pressures because they cannot pass increasing costs on to patients, the CCA said.

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And the report added that digital changes have failed to keep pace with the role of community pharmacy – staff must use different platforms for various services which creates a significant ‘administrative burden’.

The CCA is urging in the next government in Wales to:

• Fund community pharmacy in line with workload and inflationary costs;
• Invest in the pharmacy workforce;
• Rollout and accelerate digital changes;
• Ensure performance data is shared with the sector;
• Drive greater collaboration across the entire NHS.

CCA chief executive Malcom Harrison, said: ‘The potential for community pharmacy is huge, and if the Welsh Government wants to harness this opportunity, protect patient access and free up NHS capacity, investment in the sector is non-negotiable.’

He added that pharmacies across Wales have been ‘stepping up’ to provide for patients.

The network of fewer than 700 pharmacies dispenses 86 million prescriptions every year – the equivalent of 1.6 million per week – including in some of the most rural areas, a Welsh Government report shows.

With a greater concentration of community pharmacies in more deprived areas, delivering NHS services through pharmacies would help address health inequalities ‘immediately’, the CCA report added.

The CCA also said that the common ailments service, which allows patients to consult a pharmacist for advice and treatment of around 27 minor conditions, saw a 44% increase in 2024 compared to the previous year, with over 400,000 uses.

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Nearly a third of pharmacies now offer an independent prescribing service, with every pharmacy expected to have an independent prescriber by 2030, it added.

The CCA said that with more investment, pharmacies could ‘harness independent prescribing to provide even more NHS services including a greater role in managing chronic conditions’.

The manifesto comes as a recent survey by the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) found that six in ten pharmacy owners in Wales reported that they remortgaged their house or used personal savings to keep their doors open last year.

It also revealed that four in 10 pharmacies in Wales were not profitable in 2025, increasing the risk of pharmacy closures.

Welsh board member for the NPA, David Thomas, warned that Welsh pharmacies are ‘hanging on by their fingertips’ and something had to change.

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He said: ‘

‘It is simply unsustainable and unfair to expect individual pharmacy owners to remortgage their house and dip into their pension pot to subsidise the cost of prescriptions and to keep their doors open for their patients.’