Some 95.1% of patients rated Wales’s common ailments service (CAS) as excellent, a survey has revealed.
Introduced in 2013, CAS sees community pharmacies providing free advice and medication for 28 common ailments, including sore throats, hemorrhoids, thrush and conjunctivitis.
In 2024 to 2025, 462,000 consultations were conducted under the service, 34.4% more than in 2022 to 2023, and “more than six times” as many as five years ago.
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The results of this year’s survey found that 98.3% of patients were “satisfied with the advice the pharmacist provided on how they can manage their symptoms after they leave the pharmacy”.
Some 98.9% reported feeling listened to by the pharmacist and 98.3% felt they had the opportunity to ask questions about CAS.
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The survey also allowed for free-text comments, of which 1499 were made. The word ‘excellent’ appeared 333 times, followed by ‘great’ 175 times and ‘friendly’ 125 times. One respondent referred to CAS as being “worth its weight in gold - we’re so fortunate to have this service”.
WIS runs as a collaborative scheme between the Welsh Government, Community Pharmacy Wales, and the health boards in Wales, and the survey was conducted using a “census approach”.
A total of 671 pharmacies participated in the survey as part of the annual Winter Incentive Scheme (WIS), which ran from October 27, 2025 to March 31, 2026 and collected 3660 patient responses.
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The news comes after the Welsh government confirmed that there “is no provision in the budget” to offer Community Pharmacy Premises Improvement grants in 2026/27.
And it follows gross profit margins from Welsh pharmacy sales hitting a 10-year high.
