Pharmacists have received top marks in yet another public poll - this time for customer satisfaction.

The Roy Morgan Customer Satisfaction Awards reveal Australia’s big-name chain pharmacies have received satisfaction ratings ranging from 85 per cent to more than 91 per cent.

The latest gold star comes after pharmacists, on 86 per cent, rated second to nurses, at 91 per cent, for ethics and honesty in the Roy Morgan Image of Professions Survey earlier this year.

Roy Morgan Research general manager Geoffrey Smith said 50 per cent of Australians aged 14 and over made at least one purchase from a chemist/pharmacy in an average four-week period in the past year.

“That’s a whole lot of customers - and for so many of them to be satisfied with the service they received speaks volumes for the high standards of this particular retail category,” he said.

“Pharmacies are heavily regulated by a range of codes and guidelines designed to ensure the customer’s well-being when buying pharmaceuticals.

“This no doubt contributes to the generally high customer satisfaction ratings across the main chemist chains, as well as the widely held perception of pharmacists as trustworthy and ethical.”

Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) president Grant Kardachi said the organisation’s Code of Ethics underpinned consumer confidence in pharmacists.

Mr Kardachi said the code outlined the values of the pharmacy profession and expected standards of behaviour for pharmacists.

“The code is made up of a number of principles covering five areas of focus which are core to pharmacists and pharmacy practice,” he said.

“These areas are the consumer, the community, the pharmacy profession, business practices and other health care professionals.

“These principles apply to every pharmacist irrespective of their role, scope, level or location of practice.

“The application of ethics is not discretionary and I think the application of the code is being reflected in the latest Roy Morgan findings.”

Mr Kardachi urged pharmacists to display the code in their practices for consumers to read.

“Transparency and pride in operating to the principles of the code can only further increase the stature of the profession as a whole and to individual practices that display the code.”

In the survey, Guardian topped the poll on 91.2 per cent, followed by Priceline Pharmacy at 90.2 per cent, Chemist Warehouse on 90.1 per cent, Amcal/Amcal Max on 89.8 per cent, Chemmart on 89.1 per cent, My Chemist on 88.8 per cent, Soul Pattinson and Terry White both on 88.3 per cent and Discount Drug Stores on 85.8 per cent.