Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment

Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment

Production of a Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA) is a statutory requirement for each local Health and Wellbeing Board (HWB) every three years or more frequently. Below you can find the latest PNA report for Southampton which was published in September 2022. (Note that although the 2013 regulations required the next pharmaceutical needs assessment to be published by 1 April 2022, this was amended to 1 October 2022 as a result of the ongoing response to the Covid-19 pandemic).

The PNA is key tool to inform the commissioning of essential, enhanced, and advanced pharmaceutical services from community pharmacies by NHS England and of complementary local services commissioned by the Public Health department of the local authority and by other local commissioners such as the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).

The NHS (Pharmaceutical Services and Local Pharmaceutical Services) Regulations 2013 set out the legislative basis for developing and updating PNAs. The National Health Service (Pharmaceutical and Local Pharmaceutical Services (Amendment and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2014 have been published to amend these regulations following a report published by the Joint Committee on statutory instruments. More recently, The NHS (Pharmaceutical and Local Pharmaceutical Services) (Amendment) Regulations 2016 were published.

The first PNA to be produced by the Southampton HWB was published on 1 April 2015 to comply with these regulations, and a second PNA report was published on 1 April 2018, both are available in the resources section below.

Southampton PNA 2022

The Southampton PNA explains the different types of pharmacies and pharmaceutical services and details of the current provision of these in Southampton, which has 40 community pharmacies.

Assessment of the needs for pharmaceutical services in Southampton is underpinned by a wealth of demographic, economic and health data which is available in the supporting appendices in Part 2, (this can be accessed in the resources section below). The supporting information also includes a detailed consideration of inequalities and specific population groups.

The conclusion of this assessment is that, in Southampton, the number, distribution, and choice of pharmaceutical services meet the needs of the population and future needs within the lifetime of this PNA. Therefore, there is no identified need for improvements or better access to pharmaceutical services in the city.