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MPs from across parliamentary divides have urged the Government to prioritise making pre-exposure prophylaxis medicines (PrEP) available via community pharmacies as part of a national drive to end new transmissions of HIV.

In a House of Commons debate yesterday (February 13) to mark HIV testing week, Alex Barros-Curtis, Labour MP for Cardiff West, called on health minister Karin Smyth to review the current restrictions on PrEP provision. 

Mr Barros-Curtis said more should be done to facilitate access outside of sexual health clinics, commenting: “In Wales, 5,157 people have been prescribed PrEP at some point since 2009, but sexual health is a bottleneck service to start PrEP. For many people, PrEP could be provided online, but for too many people in Wales it is not available online.

“There are rules and regulations stopping PrEP from being dispensed or even prescribed in community pharmacies."

He urged Ms Smyth to “tear down these barriers” or risk missing the goal of eliminating new HIV transmissions in the UK by 2030.

Mr Barros-Curtis also noted the work carried out by pharmacies and other parties in Wales to provide take-home testing kits, describing this as “a great innovation that others can learn from”. 

Meanwhile, Conservative MP for Dumfriesshire David Mundell said: “It is ridiculous that during this debate I could have emailed somebody in India and obtained PrEP, but I could not go up Victoria Street into a pharmacy and do that. 

“As well as making sure that we continue with the testing initiative, let us make PrEP more readily available.”

Ms Smyth told MPs: “To support improved PrEP access and many other critical HIV prevention interventions, the Government have provided local authority-commissioned public health services, which include sexual and reproductive health services, a cash increase of £198m compared with 2024-25 – an average 5.4 per cent cash increase and a three per cent real-terms increase.

“That represents a significant turning point for local health services: the biggest real-terms increase after nearly a decade of reduced spending between 2016 and 2024.”

A small pilot trialling PrEP provision from pharmacies is underway in the South West region of England, with the Welsh Government looking at setting up a pilot in 2025. 

In December, Labour MP Danny Beales said NHS silos are hindering access to PrEP, with patients “left to navigate complex systems” and different regions operating according to different policies.