Pharmacy contractors can now use “flexible approach” in collecting patient feedback

All pharmacy contractors will now be able to use a more flexible approach while conducting an annual assessment of patient satisfaction, with no mandatory usage of the Community Pharmacy Patient Questionnaire (CPPQ) from 2022-23.

This follows an approval from the NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSE&I) and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) for the changes proposed by the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC).

The detail has been set out in updated Approved Particulars for the annual patient experience survey.

With this, “contractors can now adopt a variety of methods for collecting that feedback, rather than having to use the CPPQ,” the negotiator said.

Alastair Buxton, PSNC director of NHS Services, said: “PSNC sought these changes to the requirements to address requests from contractors to have greater flexibility in the way they undertake surveys of patients’ experience of pharmacy services.

“They told us they wanted this flexibility so they could seek feedback which would provide better insights into what they could do to improve the experience of patients using their NHS services.”

Every year, before the start of the next financial year and by December 31, NHSE&I and PSNC will agree upon three topics which all contractors must include in their collection of feedback from patients in the following financial year’s satisfaction survey.

Currently, these topics are under discussion and the agreed list for 2022/23 will be published shortly, PSNC stated.

For 2021-22 assessment, contractors who have already undertaken the CPPQ survey, will be considered to have met the requirements for the year and need not take further action.

Meanwhile, other contractors still have the option to use the CPPQ in 2021/22 to meet the contractual requirements.