Pharmacy type
Community
Pharmacy context
This was a rural village pharmacy close to a city, dispensing around 6500 NHS items per month and a small quantity of private dispensing.The NHS items included supply to patients in MDS trays, a number of whom were patients with autism with support from a national charity. Pharmaceutical services were provided for a local 33 bed care home with s. Other NHS services provided were the standard Scottish pharmacy contract services – the Chronic Medication Service (CMS), the Minor Ailment Service, (eMAS), smoking cessation and the gluten free food prescribing service. Services provided under Patient Group Directions (PGDs) were unscheduled care, smoking cessation, emergency hormonal contraception, chloramphenicol ophthalmic products and post immunisation paracetamol supplies. A substance misuse service was also provided.
Relevant standards
- 4.1 - The pharmacy services provided are accessible to patients and the public
- 4.2 - Pharmacy services are managed and delivered safely and effectively
Why this is notable practice
This pharmacy delivers exceptional services to the local community, taking into the needs. Delivery of NHS services, in addition to dispensing, are managed in such a way to ensure that patients who would benefit are receiving these services, and all aspects are addressed to improve the benefits patients received from the medication, including compliance with their treatment regime.
How the pharmacy did this
The pharmacist team ensures that services delivered were appropriate to local needs; for example, promotion of ‘ask us anything’ with frequent use of the consultation room; the creation of a work environment actively promoting healthy living to patients; staff were actively encouraged to promote the eMAS, which often led into other services such as smoking cessation, CMS, high-risk or new medicines reviews or MDS assessment; and co-ordination and rotation of leaflets coinciding with public health campaigns. Promotional badges and other material were used to highlight these campaigns and services provided by the pharmacy, such as flu vaccination, blood pressure measurement and smoking cessation. The pharmacy promoted the ‘know your numbers’ week annually and smoking cessation was actively promoted by asking customers if they smoked and would like help to stop. The pharmacy participated in the annual 'stop smoking day' and 'stoptober' campaigns encouraging patients to stop smoking at particular times. An NHS information website ‘let’s talk medicines’ was promoted for patients who did not have the time for an in-depth discussion in the pharmacy.
What difference this made to patients
There is a proactive approach to identifying the demographic of the local community and providing services closely aligned to this.
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: