Publication date
September 2023
Key findings
Overall, respondents were very positive in their views of community pharmacies and demonstrated a good awareness of essential services. Awareness of additional services was very mixed, but there was a desire for services to be better promoted, and a willingness to access these services if they were offered. Trust in pharmacists was also quite high, despite some uncertainty about their role and expertise, particularly in comparison to the GP, and between different roles within a pharmacy.
Common reasons that prevented respondents from using their pharmacy:
- Significant waiting times and queues.
- Sometimes a poor and inefficient service.
- Some respondents did have a lack of confidence in pharmacy staff and were unlikely to visit a pharmacy for medical advice, often due to having a previous poor experience or concerns around the expertise and knowledge of pharmacists and pharmacy staff.
- Substantial number of respondents who had experienced accessibility issues, including needing evening or weekend opening hours, or closer parking.
- Others raised issues around the cost, availability and efficiency of delivery services not always accommodating their needs, particularly for housebound patients.Respondents felt that pharmacies should be doing more to promote the services they offer. Multiple respondents were particularly interested in finding out more about diabetes testing, blood pressure monitoring and emergency prescription supply.
Additional information
Report by Healthwatch Hertfordshire.
Healthwatch Hertfordshire and Healthwatch Essex have been commissioned by the Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care Board (ICB) Primary Care Workstream to undertake a series of engagement projects.
The aims of the engagement projects include:
- Gathering lived experiences to feed directly into the Hertfordshire and West Essex ICS Primary Care Workstream.
- Supporting and enabling the Hertfordshire and West Essex ICS to achieve wider participant engagement.
- Engaging patients and the public on programmes covering key priorities and areas of importance at a regional and local level.
- Making recommendations to the Hertfordshire and West Essex ICS Primary Care Workstream so improvements can be implemented.