Pharmacy type
Community
Pharmacy context
COVID-19
Relevant standards
- 2.2 - Staff have the appropriate skills, qualifications and competence for their role and the tasks they carry out, or are working under the supervision of another person while they are in training
Why this is notable practice
The pharmacy has a well organised team of volunteers to support the COVID-19 vaccination service. The volunteers are clear about their roles and responsibilities and so provide valuable support to the pharmacy team.
How the pharmacy did this
The superintendent (SI) had found that one of the greatest challenges of organising the COVID-19 vaccination service was managing the volunteers who had registered with him to support the pharmacy with delivering the service.
The SI had provided training to the volunteers on their roles and responsibilities. Afterwards two of the experienced volunteers had taken responsibility for organising the group through the use of a live, web based app to control the rota. The volunteers could look at the available dates and time slots and book themselves onto the rota when they were available. The SI had access to the volunteers' rota so that he could see who was coming in and when. He could also message volunteers via the app if he wanted to change the combination of volunteers coming in for any shift, and also to let them know if they were not needed, when booking numbers were down. The SI was satisfied that the system had worked extremely well.
The team of volunteers also ensured that people coming in for their vaccinations used hand sanitiser and kept socially distanced from one another. They also took charge of cleaning all of the areas accessed by customers regularly and replacing any hand sanitiser gels which were running low.
What difference this made to patients
People attending for their vaccine are guided through the process by a team of volunteers who are well informed and well managed. And so, people have a positive experience of the process.
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: