Consultation on the Hackney Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment 2018

What is a Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA)?

The Hackney Health and Wellbeing Board is hosted by the London Borough of Hackney. The government requires all Health and Wellbeing Boards to produce an assessment of pharmaceutical services in its area at least every three years. The next assessment for Hackney is due by the end of March 2018. This document is called the Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment. We are consulting on this document and would like to hear your views on pharmaceutical services in Hackney.

What are pharmaceutical services?

Pharmaceutical services are one of the many services currently provided under the NHS by community pharmacies and include:

• dispensing of medicines and appliances on prescription
• sale of medicines to the public
• providing advice to the public on medicines, coping with ill health or general health and well being
• receiving waste medicines for safe destruction

Some pharmaceutical services may be provided by dispensing GP practices or dispensing appliance contractors. There are no dispensing GP practices in Hackney.

Community Pharmacies in Hackney

There are 49 community pharmacies in Hackney, which equates to an average of 17.8 pharmacies per 100,000 population. This average has decreased from 19.3 in the 2015 PNA, due to an increase in the resident population. Data for 2015-16 shows the England average is 21.5 community pharmacies per 100,000 population, and 21.7 for London. As London has a transient population with generally good transport links, populations may therefore find community pharmacies in neighbouring HWB areas more accessible and/or more convenient.

The majority of community pharmacies in Hackney, 43 (88%) are open on weekday after 6pm, 37 (75%) are open Saturdays and eight (16%) are open on Sundays.

There is a much higher ratio of independent providers (85.7%) when compared to the national average (38.1%), providing a good choice of providers to local residents.

Views of pharmacy service users were gained from a survey circulated for feedback from the general public in summer 2017.

From the 209 responses received from the public questionnaire:

1.  82% had a regular or preferred pharmacy that they visited, with 57% visiting their pharmacy once a month or more

2.  86% rated as important that the pharmacy’s location is close to their home and 45% rated as important that the pharmacy’s location is close to their GP surgery

3.  90% had no difficulties travelling to their pharmacy; of those who expressed a difficulty in travelling to their pharmacy the following statistics emerged:

• 29% (7) had parking difficulties
• 25% (6) had difficulties due to wheelchair or other access problems
• 13% (3) had difficulties due to public transport availability
• 8% (2) had problems with the location (however it should be noted that respondent numbers are low for this question)

4.  83% reported having a journey time of no more than 15 minutes

5.  76% walked to their community pharmacy, 10% used a car/taxi, 9% used public transport and 3% used a bicycle

6.  When asked which additional services they would like to see provided by the local pharmacy the following statistics emerged:

• 90% indicated they wanted a minor ailments scheme
• 93% wanted an emergency supply of prescription medicines
• 89% wanted flu vaccinations
• 85% wanted a Stop Smoking Service
• 83% opted for sexual health services
• 61% wanted a supervised consumption of methadone and buprenorphine
• 63% wanted to see a needle exchange service

7.  When asked which is the most convenient day to visit the pharmacy, 30% stated Monday to Friday, only 12% of respondents indicated Saturday or Sunday and the remaining respondents did not express a clear preference

8.  When asked what time of day they prefer to visit the pharmacy, the largest number of respondents (46%) indicated that this varies, 13% prefer to visit between 6pm and 8pm and 2% prefer to visit after 8pm

9.  7% of respondents indicated that they have used an internet pharmacy.

10.  89% of respondents rated their last experience of a community pharmacy in the City of London or Hackney as either good or very good

Hackney residents are well-served with community pharmacies. There is good access to a range of services provided by community pharmacies in the area.

As a result, we do not believe there are any gaps in provision of necessary pharmaceutical services in Hackney.

However we would like to know your views as a resident of Hackney.