PATIENT SATISFACTION SURVEY 2022/23

In line with the Approved Particulars published in October 2021, the previous Community Pharmacy Patient Questionnaire has been retired, and NHS England and NHS Improvement have agreed with the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee that each financial year (1 April to 31 March) Pharmacy Contractors will undertake a Patient Satisfaction Survey through which they obtain structured feedback on patients’ experience of their NHS services (as a minimum, essential and advanced services) from patients using those services.

The Patient Satisfaction Survey must include 3 topics that will be agreed each year between NHSEI and PSNC.  Pharmacy contractors are able to ask additional questions that might address local issues, or concerns of their patient base, but the 3 mandated topics must be covered.  Full details of the requirements are set out in the Approved Particulars, which can be found here.

When you are collecting patient feedback, please make sure you are including the correct topics as outlined below in the blue box.  It might also be useful to ensure there are posters clearly visible to patients highlighting:

• You have a private consultation room available for patients to use that may want to discuss health matters in private.
• You are able to offer healthy living advice (think about what services you show as available on your noticeboard, such as OneYou services for weight management and smoking cessation). Our website has a page around signposting patients for advice in these areas and others here.

We have designed some simple A4 posters you could use as shown below that can be downloaded from the links shown:

Consultation Room Poster

Healthy Living Advice Poster

Topics and Suggested Questions

For 2022/23, NHSEI and PSNC have agreed the following topics that contractors must use in their Patient Satisfaction Survey.  They have also suggested some questions you may wish to use, but these are entirely at your own discretion, and you can use your own questions based around the topic area as suits you best.

TOPIC 1 – The ease of being able to speak to staff privately without being overheard*
Possible questions for the patient survey might include:
Are you aware that the pharmacy has a consultation room where you can discuss health matters privately?
Do you know how to arrange to speak with pharmacy staff privately?
Do you know how we protect your privacy if we conduct consultations with you over the phone?

TOPIC 2 – The provision of advice on health problems and healthy living
Possible questions for the patient survey might include:
Are you able to easily access health advice from pharmacy staff?
How do you prefer to receive healthy living advice?
Do you feel comfortable approaching pharmacy staff about your health problems?

TOPIC 3 – The timeliness of provision of NHS Services
Possible questions for the patient survey might include:
Are you happy with how quickly you are able to receive your prescriptions?
Has the pharmacy been able to meet your health needs during the pandemic?
Are there some services you think we should prioritise over others in the pharmacy?

* As topic 1 has a focus on conversations in the pharmacy, distance selling pharmacies can instead ask questions on the following topic:
How easy do you find it to contact the pharmacy to discuss your health issues or enquire about our NHS Services?

An editable ‘Word’ copy of the above topics and suggested questions can be downloaded here.

Collecting Feedback

Contractors can adopt a variety of methods for collecting structured feedback, but consideration should be given to ensuring the methods chosen are accessible to the range of patients using the pharmacy and that they reasonably reflect the pharmacy’s business profile.  This includes using more than one method of submission of patients’ feedback responses (e.g. face to face, postal, email or web-based submission) to ensure feedback across a broad patient base and across a wide range of patient demographics.

Whatever method is used to capture structured feedback, it should be free from advertisements.

The minimum number of feedback responses per pharmacy per year from their patients is proportional to dispensing volume, as outlined in the table below: