Agenda item

To present the draft Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment and explain the consultation process.

Dr Joel Mulimba and Puja Patel presented the item on the West Berkshire Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (Agenda Item 10).

It was explained that the Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA) was a statutory document that was produced every three years. A new version was due in October 2021, but this had been deferred by a year due to Covid.

The PNA was used to inform commissioning of pharmaceutical services and to support decisions about applications for new pharmacies or changes to  pharmacy premises.

Data had been gathered from various national and local datasets, a survey of pharmacy contractors and a survey of service users and the general public. Existing and anticipated population demographics had been taken into account, as well as population health issues prevalent in the area. Various strategies and plans had also been reviewed including the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment.

Development of the PNA was overseen by a Steering Group with representation from Public Health Berkshire, the Local Pharmaceutical Committee, the Integrated Care Board, NHS England Pharmacy Team, the Local Medical Committee, Healthwatch and a patient representative.

A public survey was carried out between 13 January and 4 March 2022 to capture views on: frequency of use; accessibility; reasons for using pharmacies and protected characteristics. This had been disseminated on a whole population basis and a targeted population basis, with support from the a variety of organisations including West Berkshire Council’s Communications Team, Healthwatch, the Volunteer Centre, Community United and Newbury College. Paper copies of the survey were offered in addition to the online survey and focus groups were offered to community groups.

256 residents were engaged. Overall, residents were happy with the services they received and most people chose their pharmacy on the basis of location. 98% of respondents took 20 minutes or less to reach their pharmacy. Most respondents visited their pharmacy once a month.

A contractor survey captured information about commissioned services that they delivered and services they would like to deliver. Responses were received from 19 out of 21 contractors.

The draft PNA went out for a 60 day public consultation on 10 June 2022. All statutory consultees had been invited to comment. The final draft would be taken to the Steering Group on 21 September 2022, before coming to the Health and Wellbeing Board for approval on 29 September 2022.

The Chairman noted that the document still had some references to West Berkshire as a borough rather than a district and asked for these to be corrected for the final version.

Members of the Health and Wellbeing Board were encouraged to provide feedback as part of the consultation rather than waiting until 29 September.

It was highlighted that in the Health Index, one of the aspects where West Berkshire scored most poorly was the distance to pharmacies. However, the draft PNA suggested that there was good access to pharmacies.

It was explained that a national survey had shown that 95% of people could reach a pharmacy within a 20 minute travel time. This was agreed by the Steering Group as an appropriate measure for access in West Berkshire. It was also noted that some pharmacy provision was done through dispensing GPs.

The Board highlighted concerns expressed by the Local Pharmaceutical Committee (LPC) about workforce challenges faced by community pharmacies, and asked why these concerns did not appear to be reflected in the draft PNA.

It was noted that while this had been highlighted in surveys for other local authorities, it had not featured in the West Berkshire survey responses. However, Healthy Dialogues offered to discuss this with the LPC if it was considered to be an issue locally. It was acknowledged that that staffing had been an issue for many pharmacies during Covid.

Members asked if there was data on how pharmacies were being used and whether pharmacies had appropriate facilities (e.g. consultation rooms) to be able to take on additional work that would otherwise be done by GPs.

It was confirmed that the public survey had captured some data on how and when pharmacies were being used, and why people chose particular pharmacies. The contractor survey had been kept deliberately short to avoid over-burdening contractors during Covid. Information about facilities such as private rooms was not captured through the contractor survey, but it could be obtained through NHS England if needed.

Healthwatch indicated that they had been involved in the initial PNA work. Given how much services users relied on pharmacies and the potential for additional work to be handled by pharmacies in future, they felt that it was important to capture their views, but it was recognised that this was a complex topic.  Questions were asked in relation to pharmacy provision for planned housing developments, and current workforce vacancy rates.

It was accepted that the PNA was a technical document, but this was necessary in order to meet NHS England’s requirements and efforts to make it non-technical could risk the document being non-compliant. It was confirmed that planned housing developments were considered during the three year lifetime of the PNA. In relation to workforce, no significant issues had been identified through the contractor survey. Contractors had been asked if they had capacity to take on additional services and most had agreed that they did.