This Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA) describes the needs for the population of Coventry and Warwickshire. It considers provision of services from local pharmacies. Since 1 April 2015, all Health and Wellbeing Boards (HWB) in England have had a legal responsibility to keep an up-to-date statement around the needs for services for their population from community pharmacies. PNAs are updated at least every 3 years. PNAs do not consider pharmacy provision from prisons or provision from secondary care settings such as hospital trusts.
Coventry City Council and Warwickshire City Council Health and Wellbeing Boards approached the development of the 2022 PNA as a collaborative project, with one report being produced for both areas. This decision was taken due to the interconnectivity of health and care systems across Coventry and Warwickshire, the joint recommissioning of several services which community pharmacies are involved in, and creating a consistency for a population who access services across both areas.
Local pharmacies were surveyed to better understand services they provide and could provide. Members of the public were also surveyed. A public survey explored how people used pharmacies and what they valued about them. Views from both surveys informed the development of this pharmaceutical needs assessment documents.
A PNA examines the needs of the local population in line with key local intelligence and strategies. This PNA identifies how any needs and service gaps can be met by developing services from existing pharmacy providers. The PNA can inform commissioning of future services including whether or not new pharmacies should be allowed to open.
A formal consultation took place from 20 June 2022 to 29 August 2022. Responses from this consultation have helped inform the conclusions and recommendations of this final PNA document, published 1 October 2022. This PNA replaces the 2018 PNA for both Coventry and Warwickshire, which were done as separate reports.
This PNA concludes that there is adequate provision of pharmacies and pharmaceutical services in Coventry to serve the needs of the local population and highlights a number of recommendations to be considered.