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Volume 14
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10.3390/pharmacy14050112
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Article

“It’s Worth Its Weight in Gold”: Patient Reported Experience Measures of a National NHS-Funded Community Pharmacy-Based Common Ailments Service

by
Efi Mantzourani
1,2,*,†,
David McRae
3,†,
Egerton Hunter
1,
Grace Naylor
1,
Emma Hinks
3,
Andrew Evans
3 and
Rebecca Cannings-John
4
1
Cardiff School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF10 3NB, UK
2
Digital Health and Care Wales, National Health Service Wales, Cardiff CF11 9AD, UK
3
Primary Care Services, Welsh Government, Cardiff CF10 3NQ, UK
4
Centre for Trials Research, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF14 4YS, UK
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
These authors contributed equally to this work.
Pharmacy 2026, 14(5), 112; https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmacy14050112
Submission received: 19 June 2026 / Revised: 21 July 2026 / Accepted: 25 July 2026 / Published: 3 August 2026
(This article belongs to the Section Pharmacy Practice and Practice-Based Research)
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Abstract

The NHS-funded Common Ailments Service (CAS) in Wales enables community pharmacists to manage 28 common ailments by providing advice and/or medication free of charge without the need for patients to book an appointment. The aim of this study was to evaluate the patient experience of the CAS using patient reported experience measures (PREMs) and determine the feasibility of digital data capture collected directly from patients through a pharmacist-led manual recruitment model. The study used prospective, primary data collected through an online survey accessible via a Quick Response code and census recruitment. A total of 3660 surveys were included in the analysis, completed between 27 October 2025 and 31 March 2026. Overall experience was rated as excellent by 95.1% of participants. A theory-based framework analysis of 1499 free-text comments across the six domains of healthcare quality confirmed the high standard of care provision, primarily influenced by consultation quality, convenience, accessibility, and short waiting times. It also identified targeted areas for improvement, such as the need for seamless referrals from other areas of primary care and consistent availability of the service across all pharmacies. While digital PREMs captured high-quality insights, the pharmacist-led recruitment model reached a “feasibility ceiling”, with an overall response rate of 3.2%.
Keywords: common ailments service; patient-reported experience measures; community pharmacy; minor ailments; PREMs; healthcare quality common ailments service; patient-reported experience measures; community pharmacy; minor ailments; PREMs; healthcare quality

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MDPI and ACS Style

Mantzourani, E.; McRae, D.; Hunter, E.; Naylor, G.; Hinks, E.; Evans, A.; Cannings-John, R. “It’s Worth Its Weight in Gold”: Patient Reported Experience Measures of a National NHS-Funded Community Pharmacy-Based Common Ailments Service. Pharmacy 2026, 14, 112. https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmacy14050112

AMA Style

Mantzourani E, McRae D, Hunter E, Naylor G, Hinks E, Evans A, Cannings-John R. “It’s Worth Its Weight in Gold”: Patient Reported Experience Measures of a National NHS-Funded Community Pharmacy-Based Common Ailments Service. Pharmacy. 2026; 14(5):112. https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmacy14050112

Chicago/Turabian Style

Mantzourani, Efi, David McRae, Egerton Hunter, Grace Naylor, Emma Hinks, Andrew Evans, and Rebecca Cannings-John. 2026. "“It’s Worth Its Weight in Gold”: Patient Reported Experience Measures of a National NHS-Funded Community Pharmacy-Based Common Ailments Service" Pharmacy 14, no. 5: 112. https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmacy14050112

APA Style

Mantzourani, E., McRae, D., Hunter, E., Naylor, G., Hinks, E., Evans, A., & Cannings-John, R. (2026). “It’s Worth Its Weight in Gold”: Patient Reported Experience Measures of a National NHS-Funded Community Pharmacy-Based Common Ailments Service. Pharmacy, 14(5), 112. https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmacy14050112

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