New cash injection for pharmacy training in Wales  

In a bid to train more pharmacists, the Welsh government has allocated an additional £0.762m funding to its pharmacy training budget.

The extra funding to the pharmacy training budget serves as part of the government’s record cash injection of over £227m to expand health professional workforce training places in Wales.

The latest allocation is an increase of over £16m from last year.

The additional money amounts to an 8.3 per cent increase. It will see £9.124m more being allocated to help fund training across all education and training programmes for healthcare professionals in Wales.

“An extra £5.312m will be used to support GP training numbers and an increase of £0.762m for the pharmacy training budget across Wales,” the Welsh government said in an announcement on Monday (Dec 7).

The announcement also sees an additional £2.3m being allocated for extra medical training and education places. This will support the highest ever number of training opportunities in Wales.

The additional training places will increase the capacity of the workforce to help the NHS respond to the challenges facing it now and in the future.

Welsh Minister for Health and Social Services, Vaughan Gething, said: “This year NHS Wales has shown great strength and resilience, which is only possible thanks to the dedicated workforce within it. Health professionals continue to be on the frontline to care for us all, as we continue to tackle the coronavirus pandemic. As a nation we owe our health and care sector a huge amount of gratitude and I’m proud of everything they have achieved in this difficult and testing year.

“This year has shown more than ever how crucial investment is in training and sustaining our health workforce across Wales. NHS Wales has more people working within it now, than at any other time in its history, to care for every person, family and community in Wales.

“The funding announced today will ensure the NHS workforce continues to have the right skills to provide high quality care for the people of Wales for now and in the future”.

The funding has increased for the seventh consecutive year and comes at a milestone point for the NHS in Wales which is continuing its efforts to tackle coronavirus pandemic.