In 2021/22, Healthy Dialogues were commissioned to deliver a Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA) for the London Borough Bromley. This was one of 15 we had completed in 2022.

PNAs are a statutory requirement of health and wellbeing boards every three years, they report on the need for and provision of pharmacy services in a local area. They are technical and strategic documents that are primarily used by NHS England and local commissioning bodies.

Methodology

Working closely with stakeholders and a multi-agency steering group, Healthy Dialogues employed a range of research methods to understand local needs and pharmacy provision.

Our methodology included:

• An Equality Impact Assessment
• Analysis of projections and ward level population data.
• Mapping of local needs and service provisions
• Patient and public surveys of pharmacy provision, distributed widely across protected characteristic
• Distribution of a contractor survey and validation of NHSE and Local commissioning data
• 60-day public consultation

As per Health and Wellbeing Board requirements we produced an overview on essential services, advanced services, locally commissioned services, improvements and better access (gaps in provision), necessary services (gaps in provision) and other locally commissioned services.

Outcomes

We completed the first draft and disseminated it for a 60-day public consultation ensuring all relevant media channels were used to promote the consultation. We also invited all stakeholders to comment

Once the consultation was completed, we made the relevant edits to the final draft of the PNA and presented them, along with recommendations for commissioning to the Health and Wellbeing boards where they were very well debated and received. We published the PNA in September 2022, on time and within budget. You can view the completed PNA document here: Bromley PNA PDF.