To approve the publication of the Herefordshire Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment.

The Director of Public Health presented a report on the Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA).  During his presentation, he highlighted the following areas:

·         That the Health and Social Care Act 2012 transferred responsibility for developing and updating PNAs to Health and Wellbeing Boards which had a statutory responsibility to publish it. The primary purpose of a PNA was to guide the commissioning of community pharmacy services and inform the commissioning of services that would deliver the same outcome as ‘pharmaceutical services’. PNAs would inform commissioning decisions by local authorities, NHS England and clinical commissioning groups (CCGs).

·         The PNA would be issued to NHS England as the main commissioner of pharmaceutical services.  A person who wished to provide NHS pharmaceutical services would apply to NHS England and demonstrate they were able to meet the pharmaceutical needs as set out in the relevant Pharmaceutical Needs Assessments.

·         This Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment was a reference point for pharmaceutical services and would form part of the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment of the population of Herefordshire.

In the ensuing discussion, the following points were made:

·         That Healthwatch Herefordshire was linked into community pharmacies and that this informative document, which laid out a complex landscape, would be a valuable tool.

·         that the Herefordshire Clinical Commissioning Group (HCCG) was aware of the importance of the dispensing functions of the rural GP practices and that they provided a mutually supportive role, as in some cases it would not be possible to run a primary care service in certain locations without an associated dispensary.

·         That NHS England should be held to account by the Board for the commissioning of pharmacy services and an item to this end would be added to the Board’s Work Programme.

Resolved: That the publication of the Herefordshire Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment be approved