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Agenda item

Agenda item

PHARMACEUTICAL NEEDS ASSESSMENT

The Director of Public Health submits a report on the Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA).  Consultation on the draft PNA was conducted from 2 October 2017 to 2 January 2018 and the responses to the consultation are summarised in Appendix 1 to the report. 

 

The Board is asked to:-

 

           Note that all mandatory consultation is complete and the PNA is ready for publication.

 

           Note the detail of the PNA specifically the recommendations to commissioners.

 

           Consider the role of the Health and Wellbeing Board in ensuring the recommendations contained within the PNA are enacted.

 

           Consider the role of the Health and Wellbeing Board in supporting the development and accreditation of Healthy Living Pharmacies.

Minutes:

The Director of Public Health submitted a report on the Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA).  Consultation on the draft PNA was conducted from 2 October 2017 to 2 January 2018 and the responses to the consultation were summarised in Appendix 1 to the report.

 

The Board also received a presentation which is attached to these minutes.

 

It was noted that, in addition to the contents of the presentation:-

 

·         It was expected nationally that there would be a reduction in the number of pharmacies and there would be a continuing trend of pharmacies consolidating and joining together.  The Board was now required to make a statement within 45 days of any consolidation of local pharmacies as to whether the change would make a difference to the area.

 

·         The City had an above average number of pharmacies per 10,000 population; but their distribution was not evenly spread across the City.

 

·         88% of pharmacies currently offered Medicine Use Reviews for patients and each pharmacy was permitted to undertake up to 400 per year.  10 pharmacies in the City had undertaken the maximum of 400 reviews but 4 pharmacies had only carried out as few as 9 reviews.

 

·         New Medicines Service were offered by 76% of pharmacies.

 

·         45 pharmacies offered flu vaccinations and over 5,000 had been carried out in 2016/17.  The national average for pharmacies offering flu vaccinations was 62% but the proportion of pharmacies offering flu vaccinations in the City was lower.

 

·         The Council had complied with the new statutory duties.

 

Members of the Board commented that:-

 

·         The emerging number of pharmacies situated within supermarkets were acknowledged as being a convenient place to collect prescriptions but it was questioned whether they engaged sufficiently in health promotion campaigns to the same degree as other ‘high street’ pharmacies.

 

·         There were differing health needs in different parts of the City – for example, the west area of the City had higher incidents of lung conditions/smoke rates and it was questioned whether there was any information to link the take up pharmacies to offer specific services to the health needs of specific localities and how they could be encouraged to deliver services to match those local needs and how better links with NHS England could be established to share data etc.

 

·         Healthwatch, indicated they had concerns about the low levels of self-care currently used by the public and their awareness of the services offered by pharmacies and wished to work with the Board to increase the level of understanding of services that were available to reduce the pressures on the GP services.

 

In response to the comments made by Board members it was stated that:-

 

·         The Local Pharmacy Committee (LPC) were aware that 5-6 pharmacies in supermarkets had carried out approximately 200 health checks in 6 months and that some regular shoppers had established a regular relationship with the pharmacist as part of their daily shopping routines. 

 

·         The LPC now had statistical evidence that it could share to demonstrate the levels of engagement across pharmacies.   For example, the Urgent Medicine Supply Advanced Services Scheme was designed to enable the 111 service to refer patients to local pharmacies to obtain their supplies and this was already producing date on the reduced impact upon Emergency Care Centre attendance.

 

·         It would be beneficial if LPC – tries to link with long term illness leads – like to get GPs to refer patients with long term health needs to local pharmacies to support their health care.

 

·         It was difficult to work out the services that local pharmacies should provide for their local population as people did not always use their nearest pharmacy but may use pharmacies near to their work or in the City Centre.

 

·         It was considered that NHS England should also assess new applications from pharmacies against the PNA to make sure that they were in the right place ect and assess how the application reflected the needs of the PNA.

 

The Board noted:-

 

1)         That all mandatory consultation was complete and the PNA was ready for publication.

 

2)         The detail of the PNA and specifically the recommendations to commissioners.

 

3)         The role of the Health and Wellbeing Board in ensuring the recommendations contained within the PNA were enacted.

4)         The role of the Health and Wellbeing Board in supporting the development and accreditation of Healthy Living Pharmacies.

 

The Board asked the Director of Public Health to write to NHS England asking for an assurance that they would use the PNA actively to consider the distribution of pharmacies and the services offered by them and take this into account when considering applications from pharmacies.

Supporting documents: