Pharmacy type
Community
Pharmacy context
COVID-19
Relevant standards
- 2.1 - There are enough staff, suitably qualified and skilled, for the safe and effective provision of the pharmacy services provided
Why this is notable practice
The pharmacy works well to ensure the efficient delivery of the COVID-19 vaccination service and its other pharmacy services, by organising the availability of its team members effectively.
How the pharmacy did this
The pharmacy had four trained pharmacist vaccinators to assist with the COVID-19 vaccination service. And it planned for the service to be offered only when it had additional team members available to support its other services. The pharmacy had produced a rota which clearly identified its vaccine clinic days. This allowed pharmacy team members to inform people of when the service was available. And it enabled the team to plan its workload in advance. The pharmacy scheduled in a team member to work in a flexible role each clinic day. This team member provided support to the vaccination service and to the rest of the team if needed.
The team found that by offering the vaccination service on certain days only, provision of its regular pharmacy services had been unaffected. This approach had also reduced the number of people presenting at the pharmacy and the risk of queues developing. As part of the planning for the service the team had identified that it was important that people requiring other pharmacy services were not caused unnecessary concern or anxiety because there were more people in the pharmacy. So, by putting steps in place to limit the number of people arriving for the COVID-19 vaccine the team had helped to allay these concerns.
What difference this made to patients
People can access all of the pharmacy’s service safely and efficiently. The pharmacy takes steps to manage the number of people accessing its services each day. And this helps to make people feel at ease.
Highlighted standards
We have identified the standards most likely and least likely to be met in inspections, and highlighted examples of notable practice for each of these standards; to help everyone learn from others and to support continuous improvement: