Report to follow

Contact: Berni Lee, Consultant in Public Health, Shropshire Council /Rachel Robinson, Executive Director of Health, Wellbeing and Public Health, Shropshire Council / Alex McLellan, Public Health Intelligence Manager, Shropshire Council

The Board received the report of the Executive Director of Health, Wellbeing and Public Health – copy attached to the signed Minutes – which provided an update on Shropshire’s JSNA including progress to date, future direction and timescales.

The Executive Director of Health, Wellbeing and Public Health highlighted a number of key points.  She updated the Board in relation to the Place-based JSNA work which was moving forward, and drew attention to the screenshots of the web-based tool which were attached to the report, and which was the baseline information that would be pulled into a web-based profile that the public would be able to access.  It was hoped to launch this later in the year. The screenshots were contained in the report just to share with the Board the progress that was being made and she explained that data would be added to the web-based tool as the thematic JSNAs were progressed.  It would also be an important tool for the population health management going forward.

The next part of that would be the place-based JSNAs which would take the information from the web-based tool plus the additional information held from research and from various needs assessments. It would also bring in stakeholder and patients voices, asking them about the big issues around health and wellbeing that mattered to them and listening to those realities that were coming from those communities.  This work had started in Highley and will be undertaken in Oswestry and St Martins before being rolled out across the other areas to capture that data.  There was a stakeholder event taking place the following Monday in Highley in order to develop the recommendations based on that information going forward.  The Executive Director of Health, Wellbeing and Public Health agreed to update the Board at its next meeting.

Turning to the Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment, the Population Health Manager gave a brief summary and drew out a few salient points.  He reported that there were 47 pharmacies within Shropshire local authority area.  421 resident questionnaires were received which was smaller than they would have wished and was slightly skewed towards women and more affluent socio-economic groups.  He then took members through the results and key messages of both the patient and the pharmacist surveys and he summarised the recommendations (set out on page 52).  In conclusion, it was considered that the current pharmaceutical service provision in Shropshire was insufficient and that in areas of development and population growth, additional pharmacy provision would be required.

Concern was raised about the shortage of pharmacists seen in recent months in the South of the County and people were needing to travel to access a pharmacy.  A query was raised as to whether there was a shortage of pharmacists nationally and whether there was any way to encourage people to become pharmacists.  In response the Accountable Officer/Executive Lead for Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin ICS explained that the workforce issue was similar to other NHS workforce challenges nationally, around how many staff were needed, how many could be trained, over what time period, how to retain current staff, how to develop staff from the local area and how to make the area an attractive place to work etc.  He informed the Board that from April 2023 community pharmacies would be the responsibility of the ICB, so there was an opportunity going forward to think about how we want to work locally with existing pharmacies and what the future provision would look like.

RESOLVED:

To note the contents of the report and to receive updates going forward.