Agenda item

Carol Slater introduced this report and made the following points as part of her presentation:

·       Each Local Authority was required to undertake a PNA (Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment) every three years

·       A meeting of the Steering Group Multi Agency body has taken place on a number of occasions to do the work involved. This had set out what was offered and whether it meet the required needs. There then followed a 60 day consultation period

·       The distance between pharmacies had been measured and testing had shown that all the Bristol population lived within a mile of a pharmacy. There was therefore no gap in provision for any section of the population

·       Details of the analysis carried out were shown, including the availability of methadone.

·       Responses from people who lived in Lawrence Hill, St George and Inner City and East had indicated issues with access for those with a disability and with no car access so an analysis of walking distance access had been carried out

·       Other issues which had been considered were the issue of general population growth arising out of differences between Bristol South, Inner City and East plus North and West

·       The PNA had been assessed on the basis of distance from travel and any future changes will trigger the need for another one

·       Together with the BNSSG leads, she would be meeting with NHS England to address the issue of access to pharmacies for urban people in isolated places such as flats and how to arrange prescription pickups for them

Board members made the following comments:

·       There was low care ownership and poor transport in South Bristol. In addition, some local surgeries charged for delivery. People who were unhappy with the situation concerning charging should make a complaint to NHS England or Health Watch

·       Whilst the local GP practice could send prescriptions through pharmacies, it was noted that Lloyds Pharmacy had started charging for this during the pandemic. Volunteers had addressed this problem during the pandemic but this was now a problem

·       Anyone suffering from COPD who was discharged from hospital was not referred to their local pharmacy unlike those with other health conditions

·       Pharmacies in Lawrence Weston and Southmead were only open until 12pm on a Saturday, then the next nearest available pharmacies were open until 5pm and then the rest were on the other side of the city. Cribbs Causeway also closed early

·       The Collective Learning NHS Regulation Framework did not address the issue of access to pharmacies. The direction of travel is for Primary Care Boards to take over addressing issues such as this

·       It was disappointing that the most deprived areas had the lowest uptake in the consultation. More feedback was required to address inequalities

·       There was a clear concern about the need to reopen Wellspring Healthy Living Centre. A lot of people had used the consultation to give their view on this issue. It was noted that the consultation did not allow for people’s views on this issue to be taken into account. A legal battle was taking place with the pharmacy companies in relation to it

·       There was a need to address the issues of pharmacy access

ACTION: Carol Slater to follow up with Heather Williams regarding concerns about some pharmacies charging for home visits to deliver prescriptions + Carol Slater to follow up with Sharron Norman regarding pharmacies in more deprived areas of N&W locality not offering smoking cessation services.