Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Apr;21(2):409-428.
doi: 10.1111/hex.12639. Epub 2017 Nov 8.

Patient and public perspectives of community pharmacies in the United Kingdom: A systematic review

Ali M K Hindi  1 , Ellen I Schafheutle  1 , Sally Jacobs  1
Affiliations

Patient and public perspectives of community pharmacies in the United Kingdom: A systematic review

Ali M K Hindi et al. Health Expect. 2018 Apr.

Abstract

Background: The United Kingdom has been at the forefront of enhancing pharmacist roles and community pharmacy services, particularly over the past decade. However, patient and public awareness of community pharmacy services has been limited.

Objective: To identify and synthesize the research literature pertaining to patient and public perspectives on: existing community pharmacy services, extended pharmacist roles and strategies to raise awareness of community pharmacy services.

Search strategy: Systematic search of 8 electronic databases; hand searching of relevant journals, reference lists and conference proceedings.

Inclusion criteria: UK studies investigating patient or public views on community pharmacy services or pharmacist roles from 2005 to 2016.

Data extraction and synthesis: Data were extracted into a grid and subjected to narrative synthesis following thematic analysis.

Main results: From the 3260 unique papers identified, 30 studies were included. Manual searching identified 4 additional studies. Designs using questionnaires (n = 14, 41%), semi-structured interviews (n = 8, 24%) and focus groups (n = 6, 18%) made up the greatest proportion of studies. Most of the studies (n = 28, 82%) were published from 2010 onwards and covered perceptions of specific community pharmacy services (n = 31). Using a critical appraisal checklist, the overall quality of studies was deemed acceptable. Findings were grouped into 2 main themes "public cognizance" and "attitudes towards services" each with 4 subthemes.

Discussion and conclusions: Patients and the public appeared to view services as beneficial. Successful integration of extended pharmacy services requires pharmacists' clinical skills to be recognized by patients and physicians. Future research should explore different approaches to increase awareness.

Keywords: community pharmacy; health services; patient and public users; public health services; systematic review.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow diagram demonstrating the search procedure
Figure 2
Figure 2
Thematic map of final themes/subthemes
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Abbing R. Health, Healthcare and ageing populations in Europe, a human rights challenge for European health systems. Eur J Health Law. 2016;23:435‐452. - PubMed
    1. England NHS. The NHS Belongs to the People: A Call to Action. London: NHS England; 2013.
    1. Department of Health . Healthy Lives, Healthy People: Our Strategy for Public Health in England. Norwich: Department of Health; 2010.
    1. Makowsky MJ, Schindel TJ, Rosenthal M, Campbell K, Tsuyuki RT, Madill HM. Collaboration between pharmacists, physicians and nurse practitioners: a qualitative investigation of working relationships in the inpatient medical setting. J Interprof Care, 2009;23:169‐184. - PubMed
    1. Bridges DR, Davidson RA, Odegard PS, Maki IV, Tomkowiak J. Interprofessional collaboration: three best practice models of interprofessional education. Med Educ Online. 2011;16:6035 https://doi.org/10.3402/meo.v16i0.6035 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources