Agenda item

A report that presents the Oldham Health and Wellbeing Board Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment 2025 - 2028.

The Director of Public Health presented a report that detailed the Oldham Health and Wellbeing Board Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment 2025 - 2028.

The submitted document had been prepared by Oldham’s Health and Wellbeing Board (HWB) in accordance with the NHS Pharmaceutical and Local Pharmaceutical Services Regulations 2013, as amended. It replaced the Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA) previously published in 2022.

In the current NHS there is a need for the local health partners, NHSCB, Oldham Council, Oldham pharmacies and other providers of health and social care, to ensure that the health and pharmaceutical needs of the local population are met through the appropriate commissioning of services.

There was also a need to ensure that those additional services commissioned by Oldham Council or NHSCB from Oldham pharmacies are promoted to Oldham’s population to improve their uptake. The current providers of pharmaceutical services in Oldham are well placed to support the HWB in achieving the required outcomes identified as the health priorities outlined in its strategy.

The purpose of the PNA is to assess and set out how the provision of pharmaceutical services can meet the health needs of the population of a HWB’s area for a period of up to three years, linking closely to the joint strategic needs assessment (JSNA). Whilst the JSNA focusses on the general health needs of the population of Oldham, the PNA looks at how those health needs can be met by pharmaceutical services commissioned by NHSCB and LAs.

Whilst the PNA is primarily a document for NHSCB to use to make commissioning decisions, it may also be used by Local Authorities (LA’s) and Integrated Care Systems (ICSs). A robust PNA will ensure those who commission services from pharmacies and dispensing appliance contractors (DACs) are able to ensure services are targeted to areas of health need and reduce the risk of overprovision in areas of less need.

Considering the totality of the information available, the HWB considered whether the location, number, distribution and choice of pharmacies covering each district, including the whole of Oldham HWB area providing essential and advanced services during the standard core hours currently meet the needs of the population.The HWB has not received any significant information to conclude otherwise or any future specified circumstance that would alter that conclusion.

Based on the information available at the time of developing this PNA (there were):

§  No current gaps in the need for provision of essential services during normal working hours have been identified.

§  No current gaps in the provision of essential services outside normal working hours have been identified.

§  No current gaps in the provision of advanced and enhanced services have been identified.

§  No gaps in the need for pharmaceutical services in specified future circumstances have been identified.

§  No gaps have been identified in essential services that if provided either now or in the future would secure improvements, or better access, to essential services.

§  No gaps have been identified in the need for advanced services that if provided either now or in the future would secure improvements, or better access, to advanced services.

§  No gaps in respect of securing improvements, or better access, to other NHS services either now or in specified future circumstances have been identified.

Resolved:

That the Health and Wellbeing Board notes and endorses the Oldham Health and Wellbeing Board Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment 2025 – 2028.