Royal Pharmaceutical Society in Wales

Last week Mark Drakeford MS was appointed Welsh Government Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care.

Read our response to his appointment at bit.ly/3Al7Grn

The RPS Wales Welsh Pharmacy Board met in June. Important issues discussed included medicines shortages, our work with the Senedd, access to DPPs and self selection of P-Meds.

You can catch up discussions with the full minutes on our website 👇
http://rpharms.com/about-us/who-we-are/national-boards/welsh-board

And a shorter report of the meeting from the Pharmaceutical Journal can be found at 👇
http://pharmaceutical-journal.com/article/news/national-pharmacy-board-meetings-19-june-2024

Join us at the Pharmacy: Delivering a Healthier Wales Conference!

📅 Date: Thursday, 19 September
📍 Location: The Parkgate Hotel, Cardiff

Celebrate pharmacy advancements, explore future opportunities for the profession, and connect with peers.

Featuring inspirational keynote speaker Sophie Cargill, insights from Cabinet Secretary for Health Eluned Morgan MS and presentations on their innovative practice by pharmacy professionals from all over Wales.

Free for RPS and APTUK members!
Register Now at events.rpharms.com/website/14248/

Our RPS Wales Board Members, Lowri Puw & Rhian Lloyd Evans, had a busy start to the week on Welsh media.

Discussing ongoing concerns around medicines shortages, they’ve been:

👉Explaining how and why shortages occur
👉Emphasising that pharmacy teams are working incredibly hard to manage shortages and to support their patients.
👉Giving practical advice to the public.

🎙On Monday Morning Lowri spoke to BBC Radio Cymru
🎙On Monday evening Rhian spoke to BBC Radio Wales.
💻And Lowri’s comment were also reported on BBC News online.

Links to all the coverage can be found at https://x.com/RPS_Wales/status/1813238418106642820

At RPS we know medicines shortages are causing real concern to patients, pharmacists and other health professionals. To help find solutions, we’re currently working hard on a medicines shortages investigation. Find out more at http://rpharms.com/medicinesshortages

The pharmacy team at Aneurin Bevan are recruiting for an exciting new role.

Have a look at some of the details below and apply at https://bit.ly/3VSrycF

🌈“RPS is committed to building a profession that embraces diversity, values different identities and provides a sense of belonging"🌈

Our RPS Wales team and some of our members recently had a great time representing the profession at Cardiff Pride. Find out more and see some other pictures and videos 👇

rpharms.com/about-us/news/details/rps-attend-pride-in-cardiff

🌟 Join us at the Pharmacy: Delivering a Healthier Wales Conference!

📅 Date: Thursday, 19 September
📍 Location: The Parkgate Hotel, Cardiff

Celebrate pharmacy advancements, explore future opportunities for the profession, and connect with peers.

Featuring inspirational keynote speaker Sophie Cargill, insights from Cabinet Secretary for Health Eluned Morgan MS and presentations on their innovative practice by pharmacy professionals from all over Wales.

Free for RPS and APTUK members!

Register Now at events.rpharms.com/website/14248/

We have some exciting staff news at RPS Wales.

We’re delighted that Gareth Holyfield has this week joined us as our Engagement Lead for Wales and the West of England.

Many of you will know Gareth and be aware of his deep passion for the profession from his previous roles at Public Health Wales, the NHS and as a former RPS Wales Board Member.

This new role is all about making sure that we’re listening to you and that our work is tailored to what matters to our members. So, watch out for Gareth as he’ll be out and about engaging with pharmacists across Wales and the West of England.

Our RPS Wales team had a great time at the AWTCC Best Practice Day today where we heard so many examples of brilliant work being carried out by pharmacy teams in Wales.

It was also great to speak to so many pharmacy professionals about professional issues that matter to you and to discuss current and future RPS priorities and initiatives.

Diolch AWTCC!

🌟 Join us at the Pharmacy: Delivering a Healthier Wales Conference! 🌟

📅 Date: Thursday, 19 September
📍 Location: The Parkgate Hotel, Cardiff

Celebrate pharmacy advancements, explore future opportunities for the profession, and connect with peers.

Featuring inspirational keynote speaker Sophie Cargill, insights from Cabinet Secretary for Health Eluned Morgan MS and presentations on their innovative practice by pharmacy professionals from all over Wales.

Free for RPS and APTUK members!

Register Now at events.rpharms.com/website/14248/

Our RPS Wales Director, Elen Jones, recently attended the FIP Global Vaccination Summit in Netherlands to share best practice from Wales and GB and to collectively explore ways to advance global immunisation efforts.

Find out more about it from Elen in this blog 👇

https://bit.ly/3KzIm2F

Congratulations to everyone involved in bringing together the YCC Wales / CCM Cymru Medicines Safety Day for a great event with so many high quality sessions throughout the day.

We were really grateful for the opportunity to exhibit and to speak to so many of you about the work of RPS in Wales and Pharmacy: Delivering a Healthier Wales.

We were proud to be representing RPS and pharmacy in Wales at Cardiff Pride this weekend and to spread the message that pharmacy is a profession with inclusivity at it's heart.

Thank you also Isaac, Steff & Osian who joined us as special 'very early years pharmacists' for the day!

Is there any pharmacist here working out-of-hours, specifically in NHS 111 hubs for at least 30 hours? Could you help with our study? Please read the attached.

We’ve had a productive couple of days meeting as an RPS Wales Board, together with the English and Scottish RPS boards.

Topics discussed included medicines shortages, 'Pharmacy: Delivering a Healthier Wales', our work with the Senedd & access to DPPs.

Full minutes will be published here in a few days time👇

rpharms.com/about-us/who-we-are/national-boards/welsh-board

We were so delighted yesterday to host new friends from the Malawi-Wales Antimicrobial Pharmacist partnership.

It was great to be able to share insights & experiences from pharmacy in our 2 countries. Hopefully the first of many collaborations!

Diolch Charlotte & Ceri for helping organise!

Do follow the partnership on Twitter to find out more about their work and to see more of our visitors from Malawi’s time in Wales. Follow at @ MalawiWalesAMP.

This week marks Cheryl Way’s last week as an RPS Wales Board Member after 9 years, including 2 years as our Chair.

Throughout this time Cheryl has been a strong, authoritative and passionate voice and has been central in shaping the work of the RPS Wales.

We’re so incredibly grateful for your huge contribution to the RPS and in advancing the profession in Wales, Cheryl.

We hope you enjoy your well-deserved retirement – you will be missed!

We're so excited to be brining back the 'Pharmacy: Delivering a Healthier Wales' Conference back again this year.

Find out more and book your place at https://events.rpharms.com/website/14248/

Congratulations to the new RPS Fellows from 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳

👉Judith Vincent from Swansea Bay UHB
👉Matthew Smith from Cardiff University

This is so well deserved for your contribution in advancing our profession & your incredible support for pharmacists & pharmacy students over the years 👏

This week we were proud to be a part of a joint call to the First Minister of Wales calling on him to prioritise child health.

We did this as part of a new collaborative with 20 other professional bodies that aims to ensure a sharper focus on the care and support for the babies, children and young people and the workforce we all represent.

To help inform this work, we’re very grateful that Anthony Lewis, Children and Women Lead Pharmacist at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board will be joining RPS Wales staff as an expert member to help inform the work going forward.

Find out more at bit.ly/3VdVPDC

**We also love the logo designed by children receiving care at Noah's Ark Children's Hospital for Wales!❤️

Throughout all our work at RPS on workforce wellbeing, we’re stressing the importance of a healthy work-life balance.

We’re really grateful to Dan Hallet from Cardiff for sharing with us how embracing a flexible approach has been a benefit to his work, his employers and family life.

Read Dan’s blog here: https://bit.ly/3ybEthH

Earlier this week we co-hosted the last of our three prescribing events in collaboration with HEIW. It was great to see everyone who attended the events in North Wales, West Wales and the South East.

Watch out for more events as part of our joint programme to support prescribing skills soon.

It was great to be at the Wales Pharmacy Trade Show yesterday.

Thanks to everyone who visited us to discuss our work at RPS Wales and our joint RPS-Marie Curie Daffodil Standards with Alwyn and Darrell from our team.

Thank you to all the organisers & speakers at the Wales Chief Pharmacists Symposium for such a brilliant day.

All the speakers, workshops & posters were of such a high quality and left everyone inspired to ensure that pharmacy leads the way on sustainability within the NHS!

Voting for the 2024 National Pharmacy Board elections is now open. Members and Fellows - don’t miss the chance to have your say!

Find out more about the candidates and cast your vote: https://mi-vote.com/secure/rpharms

We're busy pulling together the latest email newsletter for the Pharmacy: Delivering a Healthier Wales 'Champions Network' newsletter today.

Not a part of the Champions Network yet? Sign up below for regular updates on the progress towards Pharmacy in Wales' 2030 vision.

👉 rpharms.com/wales/pharmacy-delivering-a-healthier-wales/champions

We recently launched a new learning programme in collaboration with HEIW that's designed to empower pharmacists across Wales to confidently use their prescribign qualificaiton.

Find out more at 👉 https://bit.ly/49vPWpp

📺Great to see our board member, Richard Evens, again on S4C’s Pnawn Da with advice to the public on managing hay fever & explaining how their community pharmacist can support them.

Gwych gweld ein aelod bwrdd, Richard Evans, eto ar Pnawn Da yn rhoi cyngor i'r cyhoedd ar reoli clefyd y gwair ac yn esbonio sut gall eu fferyllydd lleol eu cefnogi.