Agenda item

Report of Jane Fowles and Catherine Aldridge, Public Health and Wellbeing

The Board received a report of Jane Fowles and Catherine Aldridge, Public Health and Wellbeing presented by Allison Duggal regarding the development of the Coventry and Warwickshire Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA), 2022-2025 and the Executive Summary was appended to the report. The purpose of a PNA was to assess local needs and identify gaps for pharmaceutical provision across Coventry and Warwickshire.  A tool to enable Health and Wellbeing Boards (HWBs) to identify the current and future commissioning of services required from pharmaceutical service providers.

Coventry City Council and Warwickshire County Council Health and Wellbeing Boards approached the development of the 2022 PNA as a collaborative project, with one report being produced for both areas. This replaced the 2018 PNA for both Coventry and Warwickshire.  The PNA would be undergoing formal consultation from Thursday 23rd June 2022 until Monday 22nd August 2022, with a statutory obligation for publication on 1st October 2022.  The report sought formal sign off from the Board before final publication.

The development of the PNA had been overseen by one multi-disciplinary steering group which included representations from organisations for both the Coventry and Warwickshire areas. The process had been split into 4 stages:

•  Stage 1 – A project management approach was used to develop the PNA and so a steering group was established which met regularly during the development of the PNA.

•  Stage 2 – A pharmacy survey and a public survey were developed. The content was approved by the steering group and was undertaken in Feb/March 2022. Following the closure of the surveys the responses were analysed.

•  Stage 3 – A summary of current provisions and gaps in provision of pharmaceutical services was identified and fed into the draft report. The content was approved by the steering group.

•  Stage 4 – As required by legislation, a 60-day consultation was necessary during the process of producing the document.

The document included the local picture for Coventry and Warwickshire, general health needs, pharmacy provisions and access, and information on pharmacy services.  It offered conclusions and recommendations on pharmacy provision and included the responses from the general public and community pharmacy survey as appendices.

Where necessary, there would be supplementary information added throughout the PNA’s lifespan of 3 years.  This would ensure it remained relevant, useful and fit for purpose.

Comments from the formal survey would be considered before official publication on 1st October, and it was proposed that the final document would be approved by the Chair on behalf of the Board.

The Board discussed:

·  Encouraging consistency at Pharmacies

·  Consistency between Coventry and Warwickshire Services for example the Sexual Health Service

·  Out-of-hours Pharmacy service

·  The role of pharmacies in managing the increased demand on the CAMHS

The Board requested the final document containing comments from the survey to be circulated to all members prior to the Chair signing off and publication on 1st October 2022.

RESOLVED that followingconsideration of the proposed Pharmaceutical Needs Assessmentthe Board:

• agree to provide comments where necessary during the formal consultation period
• request the final document containing comments from the survey be circulated to all members prior to the Chair signing off and publication on 1st October 2022.