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Community Pharmacy Patient Questionnaire (CPPQ)

The Department of Health and PSNC state that pharmacies must conduct an annual community pharmacy patient questionnaire under paragraph 26 (2) (a) (iii) of Schedule 1 to the National Health Service (Pharmaceutical Services) Regulations 2005.

Introduction to the Community Pharmacy Patient Questionnaire (CPPQ)

The requirements for community pharmacies to undertake an annual Community Pharmacy Patient Questionnaire (CPPQ)(formerly referred to as the Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire) was in 2007 published by the PSNC and the Department of Health. The questionnaire is part of the clinical governance element of the new contract, and therefore is an essential service. The questionnaire questions are contained in a national template (which can be modified under guidelines to make it specific to your pharmacy), and needs to be undertaken annually (by the 31st March of each year).

What do pharmacy contractors have to do?

The following guidance has been issued by the Department of Health and PSNC.

• Pharmacy contractors must perform the patient satisfaction questionnaire annually by 31st March each year.
• Contractors may add additional questions if they wish, provided they are related to healthcare service provision.
• The questionnaire must not contain any advertisements.
• The questionnaire should be accompanied by, an explanation as to what it is for, how to complete it, options for it to be returned and what will be done with the responses provided. This information may be provided verbally, but it would generally be beneficial to provide this in writing to the patient.
• There must be at least two choices as to how questionnaires can be returned eg return to pharmacy, or by post. It may include as one option either to return it to a location other than the pharmacy or by replying electronically.
• The questionnaire shall be distributed from the pharmacy to which it applies to, and only to persons who have received NHS services from that pharmacy.
• questionnaires should be distributed in such a way that reflects the pharmacy’s operating module. For example:
  • Distribution should be over the entire opening hours of the pharmacy, including for example weekends and extended hours.
  • Where the pharmacy delivers a significant number of prescriptions to patients’ homes, ensuring a suitable distribution of questionnaires to these patients is made.
• Responses should be analysed and strengths and areas for improvement identified.
• The minimum number of returned questionnaires for analysis required each year is dependent on monthly dispensing item count, as outlined in the table below.

Average monthly script volume	Minimum number of returned questionnaires required
0-2000	50
2001-4000	75
4001-6000	100
6001-8000	125
8000 plus	150

Further Information

Further information can be found in the links to the right, or contact us for further information.