DHSC updates guidance on pharmaceutical needs assessments

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has updated its information pack on pharmaceutical needs assessments (PNAs) for local authority Health and Wellbeing Boards (HWBs).

This information pack aims to support local authority HWBs to develop – in collaboration with stakeholders such as the Local Pharmaceutical Committee (LPC) and NHS pharmacy owners in the area – a PNA.

It also helps them to understand and implement the requirements of relevant legislation.

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A PNA is a document that every HWB in England must produce every three years. It assesses the current provision of pharmaceutical services in a local area and identifies any gaps in services or improvements needed.

If someone wants to open a new pharmacy or start a business that supplies medical appliances, they must show that their service will meet a need for, or improve access to, pharmaceutical services included in the relevant PNA.

The revised information pack by DHSC contains:

• Updated information on distance selling premises (DSP) pharmacies;
• Updated information on pharmacy opening hours, including the requirements on 100-hour pharmacies;
• More advice on ‘identifying gaps and articulating future needs, improvements, or better access’;
• More advice on ‘updating PNAs and supplementary statements’.

Many local authority HWBs will be issuing revised PNAs on or around 1 October 2025. This is because the previous deadline for HWBs to publish their PNAs was 1 October 2022 and PNAs are updated every three years.

DHSC has also clarified the information that can be included in supplementary statements, which HWBs can publish alongside their PNAs.

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A supplementary statement is an official update to an existing PNA, used to flag small changes to pharmaceutical services without having to produce an entirely new PNA.

From 1 October, supplementary statements must not provide a new analysis of service provision or identify gaps in the provision of services – this needs to wait until a new PNA is developed.

Supplementary statements should only state ‘facts on the availability of pharmaceutical services, and only if those changes are relevant to the granting of a new application’, according to Community Pharmacy England (CPE).

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Routine applications to open a new pharmacy, made before 1 October 2025, can still be supported by a supplementary statement if that statement clearly explains a local need, improvement, or better access, and is backed up by a new analysis of pharmaceutical services.

HWBs can also still publish a supplementary statement, when appropriate, saying that merging two pharmacies won’t leave a gap in local pharmaceutical services.