Agenda item

This paper provides an update on the progress made to update the Medway PNA to conform to statutory requirements. The Council has conducted a 60-day consultation on its revised draft PNA. There was a good response to the consultation and several issues were identified. The PNA has been updated to reflect feedback received and the PNA is now ready for final sign-off by the HWB.

Discussion

The Committee was advised that each Health and Wellbeing Board was required to produce a Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA) every three years. Medway’s existing PNA had been published in March 2015, therefore the new document was due to be published by the end of March 2018. The PNA took into account factors such as forecast demographic changes and houses due to be built.

The PNA would be used by the NHS in order to determine whether it would be appropriate to permit the opening of a new pharmacy or when considering requests to modify existing services. Medway had contracted a specialist to produce its PNA. Although it was not formally required for there to be a public consultation, this was considered to be good practice. Following discussions with NHS England, it had been decided to update the existing PNA rather than undertaking a new full assessment.

A 60-day consultation on the draft PNA had been undertaken during December 2017 and January 2018 ahead of the refreshed PNA being published in March 2018.

There had been a good response to the consultation and the PNA had been updated to reflect the consultation feedback. Three key concerns had been identified from the consultation feedback. Concerns had been raised about a GP practice on the Hoo Penisula, which had stopped dispensing, with regards to the provision of services in the Cuxton and Halling area, in view of new development; and in relation to whether the planned London Resort theme park could lead to increased demand for pharmaceutical services. In relation to the London Resort, it was not anticipated that this would lead to increased demand for pharmaceutical services during the next three years (the life of the PNA). Cuxton and Halling had been determined by NHS England to have the characteristics of a rural area and was a controlled locality which meant that there were limitations on pharmacies moving into the area. If this status were to change then it would be possible for a new pharmacy to be established. In relation to the Hoo Penisula, one dispensing practice, which had 3,000 patients, had stopped dispensing. A delivery service was being provided by three pharmacies in Hoo St Werburgh to mitigate the closure. Consequently, it would be recommended to the Health and Wellbeing Board that provision on the Hoo Peninsula and in Cuxton and Halling be kept under close scrutiny over the next three years and recommendations made to NHS England to change the PNA if there were significant changes in those areas during the next three years.

A Member questioned Cuxton and Halling being continued to be classified as a rural area in view of the developments in the area. The Member was also concerned about the lack of a 24-hour dispensing pharmacy in Medway or in Kent. Another Member was concerned that the process for getting prescriptions out of hours was not well enough advertised. They highlighted a case where a patient had incorrectly been advised that they would have to travel to London in order to obtain a prescription during the night.

Officers advised that the Out of Hours Service was able to provide essential services out of hours from a pharmaceutical supplies list. Medway NHS Clinical Commissioning Group was investigating the case where a patient had been told to travel to London for an out of hours prescription as this should not have occurred. The determination of whether an area was rural was made by NHS England. If there were concerns with regards to the classification of Cuxton and Halling then the Health and Wellbeing Board could ask NHS England to review this.

In response to Member concern that patients living in Strood South who used a GP practice in Cuxton, but were not allowed to use the practice pharmacy, officers advised that this restriction was due to national regulations and there were currently no plans for this to change.

In relation to pharmaceutical provision on the Hoo Peninsula, a Member was concerned that some parts of it were a long way from a dispensing pharmacist with these communities also being the furthest away from a walk-in centre. The Member sought assurance that the Health and Wellbeing Board would take this into account and consider supporting new provision. Officers advised that a delivery service was in place for part of the Peninsula and that provision would be kept under review. However, the number of patients affected (3,000) was considered to be insufficient for a new pharmacy to be viable. This would require a minimum of 5,000 patients.

Decision

The Committee noted that the PNA had been updated and would be published before the end of March 2018.