Hobbs Pharmacy (1032695) - Improvement action plan

The pharmacy team do not have an appropriate skill mix to operate safely and effectively. For example, the process for checking medicine expiry dates has not been completed and checked prescriptions have not been put away. This increases the risk of supplying expired medicines and difficulty finding prescriptions. Team members do not have time for non-dispensing related tasks, such as cleaning.

The mix of a full time NVQ3 pharmacy technician and a full time pharmacist plus two members of the staff in training are more than enough for a pharmacy dispensing an average of less than 4,200 items per month.

The pharmacy has procedures to identify and remove out-of-date stock medicines, but these are not being followed. A number of expired medicines were found with dispensing stock, so there is an increased risk of expired medicine being dispensed and supplied to people. And dispensing stock is not stored in an organised manner which could increase the chance of the wrong medicine being selected. Some boxes of medicines were seen to be crushed, so medicines are not being stored as they should.

The procedures and the rota were already present. The staff have been re-trained.

The pharmacy does not regularly record the temperature for its fridge. And some medicine boxes were stored touching the back and walls of the fridge. So, the pharmacy cannot demonstrate that medicines requiring cold storage are being stored in appropriate conditions. And some medicines are not stored securely increasing the chance of unauthorised access.

The procedures and daily reminders on Proscript were already present. The staff have been re-trained. Regarding the unauthorised access, the staff already explained during the inspection visit that the consultation room was unlocked just as they were putting the stock away and that it is always locked otherwise.