NHS West Sussex Health & wellbeing for life

Since May 2010, all primary care trusts (PCTs) like NHS West Sussex have been required by law to publish a Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment and keep it updated.

The NHS West Sussex Board approved the first West Sussex Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment at the 27 January board meeting, following a public consultation on a draft of the PNA.

The main objectives of the Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment are:

• to map the pharmaceutical services available in West Sussex at the moment, identify any gaps and explore possible future requirements
• to examine the current and future health and wellbeing needs of people in West Sussex and look at how providers of pharmaceutical services could contribute to meeting those needs
• to inform the decision-making process when NHS West Sussex considers applications to open or relocate local pharmacies.

The PNA and its appendices are available to download on the right. As the PNA is a long document, you may prefer to download the executive summary, which provides an overview of the PNA.

Places which provide pharmaceutical services (such as dispensing prescriptions for medicines and appliances) include local pharmacies, dispensaries at doctors' surgeries, internet/mail order pharmacies and specialist appliance contractors.

Pharmacies also have an important role to play in improving the health of local people. They are often the first point of contact when people are having problems with their health, especially for those who might otherwise struggle to access health services.

The public consultation on a draft of the Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA) ran from 4 October 2010 to 6 December 2010. It sought people’s views about whether the PNA reflected an accurate picture of West Sussex, if there were any areas which needed clarification and whether there was any additional information which should be included.

The views and suggestions we received helped to shape the final version of the PNA. Full details about how the consultation responses and how they influenced the final draft are in Appendix 5 (see right). 
 

At present, NHS West Sussex plans to review its PNA at least annually to ensure it is up to date.

Under the current regulations, PCTs have a duty to publish an updated PNA at least every three years. A ‘supplementary statement’ must be issued if there has been a change to the availability of pharmaceutical services and a fully revised PNA would be a disproportionate response.

As part of the plans to reform the NHS, the responsibility for PNAs is expected to lie with the public health departments of local authorities in future years.