Two opportunities for you to have your say on health services in Wales

Two opportunities for you to have your say on health services in Wales Two new inquiries launched by the National Assembly for Wales’s Health and Social Care Committee will focus on stroke risk reduction and community pharmacies. The inquiries will run separately to each other and the Committee is looking for interested people and organisations in Wales to submit their own opinions and evidence. The first inquiry will examine the current provision of stroke risk reduction services in Wales and will scrutinise the implementation of the Welsh Government’s Stroke Risk Reduction Action Plan, including the extent to which action to raise public awareness of the risk factors for stroke has succeeded. The second will examine the contribution of community pharmacies toward health and wellbeing services in Wales. In particular, the Committee will be looking at the effectiveness of the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework. This broadens the range of services offered by community pharmacies and allows Local Health Boards to negotiate some services at local level, including programmes to help people quit smoking and needle and syringe exchanges. “With inquiries such as these, it is vital to gain as much information as possible from people who use and experience these services every day,” said Mark Drakeford AM, Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee. “Our ultimate goal is to make recommendations which would improve these services for the people in Wales, wherever they live. “We would like to hear from anyone or any organisation which has an interest in either of these two important issues and I would urge them to tell us their opinions or submit evidence.” Evidence can be submitted by email (HSCCommittee@wales.gov.uk) or by post (Clerk, Health and Social Care Committee, National Assembly for Wales, Cardiff Bay, CF99 1NA.).