Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment 2025

Background

Each Health and Wellbeing board has to assess the need for pharmaceutical services in its area and to publish a statement of its assessment every three years. This is needed under the National Health Service (Pharmaceutical Services and Local Pharmaceutical Services) Regulations 2013 and is called a Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA). The regulations set out the minimum information that must be contained within a PNA and outline the process that must be followed in its development. A PNA includes:

• a statement of the pharmaceutical services which are currently provided, together with when and where these are available
• details of planned or likely changes which may affect the future provision of pharmaceutical services
• any current or future gaps in pharmaceutical services, considering the pharmaceutical needs of the population

The PNA will be used by NHS England to consider applications to open a new pharmacy, move an existing pharmacy or to commission additional services from a pharmacy. The document will also be used by service commissioners to inform the local commissioning strategy within West Berkshire and may act as a reference source for existing pharmaceutical services contractors who may wish to change the services they provide and/or by potential new entrants to the market.

Why we want your views

To help produce the PNA, we're asking people to share their experiences of using pharmacies in West Berkshire. Your views are very important to us as they will help us to understand what you need, and this will help shape future pharmacy services in your area.

We're also talking to pharmaceutical contractors about their experiences.

How to take part

We'd really appreciate you taking the time to complete our online survey, which closes at midnight on Friday, 31 January 2025. It should take about ten minutes. The survey includes questions about the services provided by pharmacies, as well as their location and opening times.

Complete our survey

If you have any questions about the survey please get in touch with Healthy Dialogues, who have been commissioned to deliver the PNA for the six local authorities in Berkshire, at PNA@healthydialogues.co.uk or call 07825 571498.

The survey includes equality monitoring questions so we can make sure our services are provided fairly and to those who need them. You can read more about how your data will be used and protected in Healthy Dialogues Privacy Policy.

For general enquiries about our Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment, please visit our webpage.

What happens next

Once the consultation is complete, the Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment will be reviewed and presented to the West Berkshire Health and Wellbeing Board before Wednesday, 1 October 2025, and published on our PNA page in October 2025.