Issue - meetings

To consider a report of the Director of Public Health.

The purpose of this paper is to seek approval for the final Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA) document, and to agree for this to be published. Stockport Health and Wellbeing Board has a duty to prepare and publish a regular PNA, which is due by April 2015. The consultation on the draft PNA was undertaken between September and November 2014 and the comments received have been reviewed. A final version of the Stockport PNA 2015 has been produced following the close of the consultation, which incorporates the comment made and changes to provision since September 2015 and is appended to the report. The paper also sets out brief plans for the PNA for the next three years, until the required update in 2018.

The Board is asked to recommend:-

·         the publication of the Stockport Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment 2015.

·         that the JSNA Project Group and Chair of Stockport Health and Wellbeing board are given delegated authority to review pharmacy needs on an ongoing basis, comment on pharmacy applications, and publish supplementary statements as required.

Officer contact: Eleanor Banister, 0161 474 2447, eleanor.banister@stockport.gov.uk

A representative of the Director of Public Health submitted a report (copies of which had been circulated) inviting the Board to consider and approve the Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA) for Stockport. The Health & Wellbeing Board was under a duty to prepare and publish a regular PNA to determine whether the borough had sufficient provision of pharmaceutical services. The draft PNA had been subject to consultation with interested parties and their responses were included in the report.

The following comments were made/ issues raised:-

·         Future commissioning of pharmacy services may be devolved to Clinical Commissioning Groups in line with the overall direction of travel.

·         Despite the increasing range of services available through pharmacies, the recent pressures on A&E and GP services would suggest that the public were not aware or not willing to use these services. Overcoming this attitude was important to make best use of the resources available in the health economy and for people to get more appropriate and timely care.

·         Pharmacies had an increasing role to play in the flu vaccination programme. Current data suggested that vaccination rates were broadly in line with the previous year.

·         It was queried whether the sheltered housing was captured within the PNA analysis.

RESOLVED – (1) That the Stockport Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment 2015 be agreed and recommended for publication.

(2) That the JSNA Project Group and Chair of this Board be authorised to review pharmacy needs on an ongoing basis, comment on pharmacy applications and publish supplementary statements as required.