Pharmacist prescribing in primary care: the views of patients across Great Britain who had experienced the service

Objective  To evaluate the views of patients across primary care settings in Great Britain who had experienced pharmacist prescribing. Methods  All Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB) prescribers (n = 1622) were invited to participate. Those consenting were asked to invite up to five consecutive patients who had experienced their prescribing to participate. Patients were mailed one questionnaire and a reminder. The questionnaire included five sections: demographics; you and your pharmacist prescriber; you and your general practitioner; your views and experiences based on your most recent pharmacist prescriber consultation; and additional views. Key findings  Of the 482 (29.7%) pharmacists who responded, 92 (19.1%) were eligible to participate, of whom 49 (53.3%) consented. Of those excluded, 193 (49.5%) were prescribing in secondary care and 171 (43.8%) were not prescribing. Between September 2009 and March 2010, 143 patients were recruited. Patient response rate was 73.4% (n = 105/143). Consultation settings were largely general practice (85.7%) or community pharmacy (11.4%). Attitudes were overwhelmingly positive with the vast majority agreeing/strongly agreeing that they were totally satisfied with their consultation and confident that their pharmacist prescribed as safely as their general practitioner (GP). Pharmacists were considered approachable and thorough, and most would recommend consulting a pharmacist prescriber. A slightly smaller majority would prefer to consult their GP if they thought their condition was getting worse and a small minority felt that there had been insufficient privacy and time for all their queries to be answered. Conclusions  Patients were satisfied with, and confident in the skills of, pharmacist prescribers. However, the sample was small, may be biased and the findings lack generalisability.