Four pharmacists are among the 13 members of a "task and finish" group set up to look at prescribing in Wales. The group's remit includes cost-effectiveness, supply arrangements and new drugs in the National Health Service.
The four are Mr Christopher Martin (community pharmacist, St David's, Pembrokeshire, and vice-chairman of Pembrokeshire local health group), Mr Mike Pollard (chief pharmacist, and clinical director of pharmacy and clinical support services, Wrexham Maelor hospital), Mr Alan Willson (executive director of community partnership, Iechydd Morgannwg Health, and a former prescribing adviser in West Glamorgan) and Mrs Delyth Simons (chairman of the Welsh Health Authorities' Medical and Pharmaceutical Advisers Forum).
The team is chaired by Dr Norman Mills, a physician who recently retired as chief executive of Llandough hospital and community trust. Other members include representatives of other health professions, community health councils and the Patients' Association. The group is due to report to the Welsh Assembly's health and social services committee next summer, giving recommendations for action by the assembly.
Announcing the appointments on November 18, the Welsh Assembly's Health and Social Services Secretary (Ms Jane Hutt) said that the team's task was to find ways in which the assembly, using its devolved powers, could improve the strategic framework for prescribing in Wales so that people who were ill received the right medicines to deal with their illness in the most efficient way. Among other things, the team would look at ways of improving the effective use of medicines by patients themselves. It would also look at the way in which National Institute for Clinical Excellence guidelines would be taken into account when setting local priorities and the best arrangements for putting the guidelines into practice.