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JSNA Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA)

What is a Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA)?

Every local authority, including Worcestershire County Council, has a Health and Wellbeing Board (HWB) to promote integrated working among local providers of healthcare and social care such as the NHS, public health, adult social care and children's services, including elected representatives and Local Healthwatch.

The main purpose of the Worcestershire HWB is to plan together how best to meet the needs of their local population and tackle local inequalities in health.

Since 2013, Worcestershire HWB has had a responsibility to assess the need for pharmaceutical services of the population within its area and to publish a statement of need. This is referred to as a Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA).

The PNA:

looks at the current provision of pharmaceutical services across Herefordshire and Worcestershire,
assesses whether service provision meets the current and future needs of the population and
identifies any potential gaps to service delivery.

The PNA is a key document which is used by:

NHS England to inform decisions about applications for new, or changes to existing pharmaceutical services, and the commissioning of NHS-funded services that can be provided by local community pharmacies
local authorities and Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG) when commissioning services to meet local health needs and priorities

Consultation on the Worcestershire Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment 2025

The Health and Wellbeing Board of Worcestershire County Council have produced a draft local Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA) which will help ensure residents have good access to local pharmacy services. The last PNA was published in 2022 and a new PNA is due to be published on 01 October 2025.

How to comment on the draft PNA

Stakeholders are requested to comment on the contents of the draft PNA before it is finalised and published. We would like to invite you to take part in this consultation which will run from 4 July 2025 until 2 September 2025.

The draft PNA can be accessed here:

PNA 2025 for consultation (PDF)

To comment on the document, please use this link:

Worcestershire PNA 2025 Consultation Feedback Form

To limit the environmental impact of this consultation we would prefer that the document is read electronically. However, if you do require a paper copy of the form or have any queries, please contact HWBadmin@worcestershire.gov.uk.

All feedback will be considered and a consultation report will be included within the final PNA (due to be published by 1 October 2025). This will give an overview of the feedback received and set out how this has impacted the final document.