Nine out of ten people (90%) said they were satisfied with the most recent NHS service they received at a pharmacy, official figures reveal.
The data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that just 2.8% were dissatisfied with the pharmacy service they received while 7.3% were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied.
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The survey also found that 88.6% of respondents reported having no problems getting an NHS prescription at a pharmacy within the past month.
However, when there was an issue getting an NHS prescription almost one-in-seven people (13.7%) said it had taken more than seven days to resolve.
The figures from the Health Insight Survey are based on responses from more than 81,785 people aged 16 years and over living in England, collected between 6 January and 28 January 2026.
Nearly a third (29.6%) of respondents said they went to a pharmacy for an NHS service once a month, compared to about one-in-five (19%) who reported going rarely or never, the survey found.
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And significantly more people attended a bricks and mortar pharmacy (81.4%) rather than an online or ‘distance selling pharmacy’ (5.7%), the poll showed.
The Health Insight Survey is designed to give patients the opportunity to offer regular feedback about their experiences of the NHS. The survey asks about people’s experiences of accessing care at their local GP practices and experience of other NHS services in England.
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The new figures come as thousands of pharmacies in England have written to health secretary Wes Streeting warning that more pharmacies are ‘at a real risk of imminent closure’ without more sustainable funding.
Closing the £2bn funding gap is one of Community Pharmacy England’s (CPE’s) top priorities for the 2026/27 pharmacy contract negotiations, which got under way this week.
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