Pharmacists in Wales should be offering the HbA1c blood test to help improve early identification of people with diabetes, MPs have recommended.

The government should consider including the diabetes test as a national enhanced service in the pharmacy contract, to expand the role that pharmacists play in conducting risk assessments, the Welsh Assembly's health and social care committee said in a report published on Monday (June 24).

Pharmacists measuring HbA1c levels would reduce GP referrals, according to Community Pharmacy Wales	More news from Wales Welsh pharmacies set for July eyecare campaign Pharmacists keen to provide catch-up jabs in fight       against measles Pharmacists in Wales get extra help to tackle heart       disease MORE NEWS
	The recommendation came as a result of the committee's review of the 10-year-old diabetes national service framework, which was set up to tackle the variations in diabetes care across the country.

Community pharmacies could play a "crucial role" in spreading the message about the importance of having a risk assessment for diabetes, the committee heard from a range of health groups, including Community Pharmacy Wales (CPW) and the charity Diabetes UK Cymru.

Pharmacists being able to conduct the test to measure a patients' HbA1c levels would lower the number of cases referred to GPs, CPW chief executive Russell Goodway said. The HbA1c test was a more accurate indicator of diabetes than blood-sugar level tests, added CPW member and Boots head of professional capability Marc Donovan.

"If you do not utilise pharmacies and just rely on primary and secondary care… the system is not going to be able to cope," Diabetes UK Cymru policy and public affairs manager Jason Harding told the committee. "It is more of a question of whether there are any other options to not include them."

Sion Llewelyn, pharmacist manager at Rowlands Pharmacy in Bala, welcomed the proposal and said the HbA1c test would provide a more "concrete reading" for the previous fortnight than the blood glucose test, which gives a reading "of the moment".

NPA representation manager for Wales Steve Simmonds welcomed the proposal for an expanded role for pharmacy. He raised concerns that the groups establishing the national health checks for the over 50s were not engaging with pharmacy.

The committee provided 13 recommendations to the Welsh government on how to tackle the disease, including the need for future health campaigns to involve raising awareness about the risks of diabetes and to ensure all diabetes patients were offered nine annual health checks.

Health minister Mark Drakeford welcomes the report and would consider the recommendations "in detail" before responding to the committee, a spokesperson told C+D. The government did not provide a date for when it would respond.