Pharmacy type
Community
Pharmacy context
This is a busy community pharmacy located within a Healthcare Centre on the outskits of a large city. The pharmacy is part of charity and is a not-for-profit organisation promoting self-help and community participation. People using the pharmacy are from the local community and there is a strong focus on health promotion and pharmacy services. The pharmacy dispenses NHS prescriptions and provides various other NHS funded services, health promotion activity and regular events. The pharmacy team supplies some medicines in weekly packs for people that can sometimes forget to take their medicines and dispenses prescriptions for care homes.
Relevant standards
- 4.1 - The pharmacy services provided are accessible to patients and the public
Why this is notable practice
The pharmacy offers and proactively delivers a wide-range of NHS commissioned services and locally designed services aimed to improve the health and wellbeing of the local community. The pharmacy works with a number of local and national partners to offer health promotion activity.
How the pharmacy did this
The owners of the pharmacy had identified the healthcare needs of the local community using healthcare and demographic data and designed services to meet these needs. A range of local healthcare professionals, including pharmacists, GP's, dentists and counsellors, volunteered at the pharmacy to help deliver some of the additional services. The team communicated with the people that used the pharmacy in a range of languages and translated leaflets were also available. The pharmacy team were accredited to offer a range of NHS services and were proactively offering these. The patient take-up rates of services, such as, minor ailment scheme consultations, CPCS consultations, needle exchange service supplies and drug user service patients were higher than most pharmacies. The services were advertised in the pharmacy and the staff spoke with people about them. Additional health promotion services had been designed and developed by the owners to meet the needs of the community. Health promotion events were carried out in local schools, community centres and care homes to address local issues. The pharmacy partnered with local and national charities and delivered health promotion events and undertook additional training to support the charities with their work.
What difference this made to patients
The pharmacy owners continuously gather data to monitor the health outcomes for pharmacy services. The pharmacy can demonstrate positive health outcomes for their patients.
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: