Around one in five people used a pharmacy for advice over the last year, official figures have revealed.
According to an NHS England (NHSE) survey of more than 654,000 patients, published today, 86.5% reported using at least one pharmacy service in the previous 12 months.
Read more: Revealed: GP referrals to Pharmacy First saw slight increase last year
The survey found that almost three quarters (74.2%) had picked up a prescription, while 41.7% said they had bought medication from a pharmacy.
Some 22.2% of patients had visited a pharmacy for advice, 18.3% had used one to get a vaccine and 8.4% were referred there by their GP, NHS 111 or A&E.
Just over one in 10 respondents (13.5%) said they had not used any of the pharmacy services listed in the survey over the past year.
Read more: Pharmacy dispensing will be ‘unusual’ in future, says NHSE chair
NHSE noted that the survey findings were similar to previous years, but that slightly fewer people had used a pharmacy service compared to 2024 and 2025.
This was “mostly driven” by fewer patients saying they had picked up a prescription, bought medicine or got a vaccine, it said.
The pharmacy services that saw a slight uptick in use over the past year included blood pressure checks (7.7%) and contraception without a GP prescription (2.0%).
Read more: NHS app to use AI to direct patients to appropriate services
The survey also found that almost nine in ten (88.9%) patients had a “good” experience using a pharmacy service in the last 12 months, including more than half (53.1%) who had a “very good” experience.
Just 3.2% reported a “poor” experience over the same period, while 7.9% said their experience was “neither good nor poor”.
Read more: Some 90% of people ‘satisfied’ with pharmacy NHS services
It comes after data obtained by C+D last week revealed that GP referrals to Pharmacy First resulting in consultations have increased by 2.3%.
And it follows NHSE chair Dr Penny Dash suggesting that pharmacies of the future will more commonly be used for advice than to supply medicines.
