Sheffield Local Involvement Network

About a dozen people attended our consultation meeting on Wednesday 29 September to discuss the draft Pharmacy Needs Assessment (PNA) document. Michelle Black, Deputy Head of Medicines Management at NHS Sheffield, gave an excellent presentation while John Skinner, Research and Evaluation Manager, took notes of the comments and suggestions from those present. The aim of the PNA is to look at the current coverage of pharmacies and the services they offer and to plan these for the future.

We found out that Sheffield has 117 community pharmacies, dispensing 10.3 million prescriptions per year. Our coverage is better than the national average with 99.6% of the population living within 2 miles of a pharmacy and 88.4% within 0.5 mile. Sheffield also has 8 pharmacies that ar open at least 100 hours per week so there is good coverage for weekends and public holidays. If you would like to see a copy of the presentation, please contact the LINk Support Team.

Those present generally agreed that coverage was good. There was some surprise when LINk members found out about some of the additional services that many pharmcists offer including a medications review, stop smoking and healthy-eating advice, emergency contraception and various tests. They felt that it is important to increase awareness about these services available that are available so close to people's homes.

Those who attended found the meeting very valuable. Their views will be fed into the review of the draft PNA and the final document will be published in February 2011. If you would like to have your say on this subject, the draft PNA consultation continues until 29 October 2010.