Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment
Wirral's Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment 2025-2028 is now published.
The final Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA) and Consultation Report has been published on Wednesday 1st October 2025 following sign-off by the Health and Wellbeing Board.
Many thanks to those who have supported the development of the latest PNA.
Latest PNA
Wirral Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment 2025 - 2028
Legislation (view here) required Wirral’s Health & Wellbeing Board to produce an updated local Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA). The PNA is a statutory requirement, which provides a comprehensive assessment of the current and future needs of local people for community pharmacy services. The PNA includes an accurate and up-to-date overview of use of and access to pharmacy services within Wirral.
Wirral’s latest (now current) PNA can be viewed below.
The PNA is used primarily by NHS Cheshire and Merseyside Pharmacy Commissioners when reviewing applications from contractors to provide community pharmacy services.
Wirral Council’s Public Health Intelligence Team and partners from across Wirral have led the development and production of the new PNA prior to its sign-off by Health and Wellbeing Board then publication on this site on Wednesday 1st October 2025.
Please see latest PNA documents below.
Please note:
The PDF files related to the Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment 2025 - 2028 may not be suitable to view for people with disabilities, users of assistive technology or mobile phone devices. Please contact phintelligence@wirral.gov.uk if you would like this document in an accessible format.
Previous Pharmaceutical Needs Assessments (PNAs)
Previous four PNAs and their associated content are below:
Community Pharmacy providers list
A key element of the Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA) legislation is the requirement to maintain an up to date providers list and map that shows the geographic position of those providers.
We continue to work with NHS Cheshire & Merseyside colleagues to provide an updated list as often as possible.
Please call back regularly to check for any changes in local provision.
Community Pharmacy Providers Local Map
Supplementary Statements
Supplementary Statements identify new facts to be taken into account when assessing applications for new pharmacy premises or making decisions about new services, where not identifying those new facts would be of significant detriment to proper service provision.
They are not used for updating what the PNA says about the need for pharmaceutical services, but the facts they identify may have consequences, in particular for unforeseen benefits applications, but also for other decisions.
Once published the supplementary statement becomes part of the PNA and will therefore be referred to by the ICB when it determines applications for inclusion in the relevant pharmaceutical list.
With the changes to the PNA Guidance issued on 31st July 2025, we will not in future be issuing supplementary statements for change of ownership, relocations, change of supplementary hours, or closures of pharmacies. We will issue supplementary statements for consolidations and any other relevant change that requires a statement to be issued.
However we will be keeping, and publishing at regular intervals, a record of all contract changes received from Primary Care Support England that relate to Wirral Pharmacy Contractors.
Previous supplementary statements
The lists below are for changes before new guidance was issued to all HWBBs on 31st July 2025, which is effective from 1st October 2025.
Please note:
The Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment is subject to updates through contract changes and any supplementary statements therefore the operational PNA content will be subject to ongoing update. This means maps and corresponding map legends may show small differences to latest PNA content.
If you have a comment, query or suggestion please email phintelligence@wirral.gov.uk
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Pharmacy Inspections
Since July 2019 the General Pharmaceutical Council now publish pharmacy inspection reports on their website.
Members of the public can find out if a pharmacy inspected since April 2019 has met or has not met all of the standards for registered pharmacies.
Where a pharmacy inspection finds that a pharmacy has not met all the standards, an improvement action plan will also be published. This assures the public that improvement is underway, informs them of the steps the pharmacy is taking to meet the standards, and that this is being monitored.
This major change for pharmacy will help to inform and assure the public about the standards they can expect from pharmacies and drive improvement in pharmacy services.
GPC also published a new report sharing what we have learnt from carrying out over 14,000 inspections covering every pharmacy in Great Britain from 2013 to 2018. This independent analysis showed that most pharmacies (over 85%) met the required standards. It also identified some key themes, patterns and trends which every pharmacy and pharmacy team could use to learn from and improve.
Go to latest Pharmacy Inspections
Background to local Pharmaceutical Needs Assessments
Since 1st April 2013, every Health and Wellbeing Board (HWB) in England have had the statutory responsibility to publish and keep up to date a statement of the needs for pharmaceutical services of the population in its area, referred to as its pharmaceutical needs assessment, or PNA for short. The PNA is expected to present a picture of pharmaceutical service provision, reviewed access, range and adequacy of service provision and choice of provider to build on the sectors capacity and capability to help address health inequalities and support self-care in areas of greatest need.