Identifying where best to locate a pharmacy has been a key requirement for a long-term client of Chris Hadley Consulting. Already having helped with scoping out the best opportunities for a number of sites in North West England, the plan now is to identify potential locations across the wider country.

Given the size of a country-wide project it was decided to undertake this mapping exercise in two stages with this first stage providing a ‘helicopter’ overview of where the best opportunities would likely be found. Using ONS data on deprivation, adjusted to take account of factors such as health and age that were viewed as having a direct impact on pharmacy use, analysis was provided at a LSOA (Lower Super Output Area) level. Using this, the top 500 LSOA’s that were identified as offering the best opportunities were clustered by local authority and then ranked.

The results of the study, which included a summary report and spreadsheet, offered suggestions where best to focus attention for stage two research where additional analysis, such as competition from existing pharmacies, would be required.