Agenda item

This paper presents the refreshed Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment for Medway for 2022–2025.

Discussion:

Members considered a report on the refreshed Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment for Medway for 2022–2025.

The following issues were discussed:

·         Smaller pharmacies – concern was expressed that Medway did not have many large pharmacies and too much responsibility was being placed on smaller pharmacies, particularly where there was only one pharmacist employed. Officers acknowledged that this was an important point but advised it was not covered by the Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA) and was a quality issue for NHS England. The PNA described the needs of the population and set out the challenges to the system and the risks, which NHS England, as the Commissioner, then had to take into account and decide if there were any gaps.

·         Travel times - Members were advised that most people in urban areas of Medway lived within a 20-minute walk of a pharmacy, with people in rural areas being within a 20-minute drive. The point was made that not everyone had access to a car and being able to get to a pharmacy in rural areas by bus during opening hours was an issue. Members were advised the PNA included information about access to pharmacies by public transport (both morning weekdays and evening weekdays).

·         Urgent prescriptions – how long it would take someone to receive their prescription by post or delivery driver if they were unable to travel to collect it was questioned. MedOCC provided an out of hours prescription service. Pharmacies were required to make arrangements for the provision of urgent prescriptions, which would be done in consultation with the prescribing physician. The Council could not stipulate that pharmacies needed to put in place arrangements for urgent medical deliveries but the PNA allowed areas of concern to be highlighted. NHS England also needed to consider how to provide the same level of access to prescriptions where people were unable to travel to a pharmacy.

·         E-prescriptions – a point was made that the ability to use e-prescription services was now used regularly by many people whereas the PNA focused on the opening hours of physical pharmacies.

·         Vaccination capacity – in response to a query about the extent to which the PNA assessed vaccination capacity and whether it would future proof the ability to vaccinate at short notice, the Director of Public Health commented that the management of the vaccination programme would be on a contractual basis which pharmacists could decide to engage with. The capacity and capability of a pharmacy’s workforce to take on vaccination work was also an issue. The Integrated Care Strategy was likely to place a greater emphasis on pharmacies providing a wider range of services.

·         Sustainability of pharmacies – whether pharmacies needed to take on more clinical work to be sustainable and what the appropriate balance was between the latter and dispensing prescriptions was questioned. The Director of Public Health commented it was not possible to specify what this balance should be given the variety of pharmacies. There was a school of pharmacy in Medway which presented an opportunity to recruit more pharmacists in Medway. Whether the Integrated Care Board had a role in creating more sustainable pharmacies and in training pharmacists was queried. The Director of Public Health advised that liaison with NHS commissioners in relation to expanding role of pharmacies and training were the responsibility of the National Pharmaceutical Association and Local Pharmaceutical Committees. He suggested the Committee may want to discuss the issue of the sustainability of pharmacies and the challenges they were facing with the Local Pharmaceutical Committee. 

Decision:

The Committee agreed to note the report and that a discussion with the Local Pharmaceutical Committee to discuss local provision, challenges and sustainability take place at a future meeting.