Five percent of the public find community pharmacies ‘difficult’ to access, survey finds

Community pharmacies were the most easily accessible healthcare services during winter 2024, a survey conducted by Community Pharmacy England (CPE) has found.

Results of a YouGov survey, published on 20 May 2025, found that 5% of survey respondents said community pharmacies were “difficult” to access, compared with 37% of respondents who said general practice was “difficult” to access.

The results also showed that 29% of respondents found dentists “difficult” to access, 22% felt the same about non-urgent hospital services, and 18% reported difficulty accessing A&E services.

CPE surveyed 1,920 members of the public on 12–13 April 2025.

More than half of respondents (58%) reported that they found it “easy” to access community pharmacies during the most recent winter; 39% of respondents found it “easy” to access general practice; 37% found it “easy” to access dentists; 22% found it “easy” to access non-urgent hospital services; and 18% found it “easy” to access A&E services.

In the same survey, respondents also expressed support for proposals from Community Pharmacy England (CPE) and the Taskforce for Lung Health to help prevent a future winter respiratory health crisis.

The survey results revealed that more than three-quarters (85%) of respondents would support pharmacies offering more help with assessments and assistance for people with asthma, while the same amount (85%) of respondents were in favour of pharmacies offering a wider range of vaccinations, and 84% of respondents backed pharmacies offering stop smoking services without needing a referral.

CPE and the Taskforce for Lung Health are jointly calling for an expansion of community pharmacy services to include the provision of further respiratory care, such as annual asthma reviews and pneumococcal vaccinations. 

Commenting on the survey results, Darush Attar-Zadeh, a primary care network pharmacist and co-chair of the Taskforce for Lung Health’s Medicines Optimisation Working Group, told The Pharmaceutical Journal: “Community pharmacies remain highly accessible, but this mustn’t be taken for granted amid closures, staffing cuts and rising workloads.

“The expansion of services like vaccinations, Pharmacy First and smoking cessation (in some areas) is a welcome step, especially in preventing illness and reducing hospital admissions during the winter months.

“For respiratory patients, I’d like to see more regular, face-to-face/video inhaler technique reviews across all age groups to better support respiratory patients and reduce winter pressures.

“Pharmacies are vital to community health and must be properly supported with training, better integration within the primary care team and sufficient remuneration.”

Olivier Picard, chair of the National Pharmacy Association, said: “As the research rightly shows, pharmacies are the most convenient and easy-to-access part of our health system, despite recent funding pressures.

“This is particularly noticeable in the winter, where we know GPs and hospitals are at their busiest. 

“Trusting pharmacies in England to treat a wider range of health conditions, like they already do in other parts of the UK, will deliver good value for money and better care for patients, avoiding the 8AM scramble for a GP appointment.” 

Alastair Buxton, director of NHS services at CPE, said: “By empowering and investing in pharmacies to offer a fuller range of respiratory healthcare services, they could provide the lifeline that our creaking health system needs. We should be investing in pharmacies to make better use of their clinical skills to provide a variety of prevention and public health services, such as those to support and manage respiratory health issues. This would help patients and the wider NHS.”

A study, published on 11 May 2025, found that a decline in pharmacy access in the most deprived areas of England is four times greater than in the least deprived areas.