A DRAFT assessment has been produced for North Yorkshire, describing what pharmacy services are available in the county and what services might be needed in the future.

Earlier this year, a public consultation asked people if they thought existing pharmacy services were in the right place, open at the right time and provided the services needed.

The consultation was lead by Public Health teams from North Yorkshire County Council and City of York Council, on behalf of their Health and Wellbeing Boards, in partnership with other agencies including NHS England and Healthwatch.

The information gathered from the consultation exercise has now been used to complete a draft Pharmacy Needs Assessment (PNA) for 2018-21 that looks at the health needs of the population of the county, the level and accessibility of pharmacy services and how these will be maintained and developed in the future.

This will influence decisions on where to site pharmacies, their opening hours and what services are provided. NHS England makes commissioning decisions about pharmacies in North Yorkshire and the PNA will be used to help them do this. The assessment is renewed every three years.

Cllr Michael Harrison, chairman of the North Yorkshire Health and Wellbeing Board (HWB), which produced the draft PNA, said: “Evidence shows that generally there continues to be a good geographic spread of pharmacies across North Yorkshire, and good coverage in areas where demand is greatest. The majority of people live within a reasonable travel distance of a pharmacy, and all of the county’s districts and boroughs have above the national level of pharmacies per 100,000 population.

“We have produced our draft assessment based on this evidence and on what people – including those who don’t or rarely use pharmacies – have told us they think about existing pharmaceutical services, and what they think we should be looking to provide in the future.”

The consultation on the draft assessment closes at midnight on February 11, 2018, and residents can take part at https://consult.northyorks.gov.uk/snapwebhost/s.asp?k=151264448978

Feedback from the consultation will be collated and presented to the PNA Steering Group, for consideration on behalf of the HWB, and the final assessment document will be published by the end of March.