McKeevers Chemists (1086871) - Improvement action plan

The pharmacy does not always follow the written procedure available to check the expiry dates of its stock medicines and this has resulted in expired medicines not being identified and disposed of in a timely manner. And it does not always keep a record of its fridge temperatures on a daily basis to help demonstrate that it always stores cold chain medicines appropriately to make sure they remain safe to supply.

Pharmacy staff have been reminded that they must routinely date check all stock in the dispensary at least once every 12 weeks and document this on the company’s Dispensary Date Checking Matrix document. Completed matrix’s must be stored in the pharmacy as evidence of safe stock management. When date checking products, pharmacy staff were reminded to rotate stock where necessary so that the shortest date stock will be selected first when preparing prescriptions for dispensing.
In accordance with our procedures, colour coded stickers are also to be placed on products which have an expiry date of less than six months during the date checking process. This acts as a visual cue to alert staff to double check the expiry date during the dispensing process as the product has been identified as having a short expiry date.
When opening liquid medicines which have a defined expiry date once opened, pharmacy staff have been advised to record the date on which the medicine should be discarded as well as the date of opening as this assists in minimising the risk of a medicine being dispensed which has expired.
The area manager is currently assisting the staff in Somerville Pharmacy to establish a robust date checking process.

Regarding the recording of fridge temperatures in the pharmacy, a daily recurring alert has been set up on Cegedim PMR’s calendar tile which alerts pharmacy staff that they need to record the fridge temperature. Pharmacy staff have been reminded that fridge temperatures must be checked once daily on all days the pharmacy is open and recorded on Cegedim PMR under the fridge temperatures tile. Pharmacy staff were reminded of the importance of completing this task to ensure the refrigerated medicines are being stored within the correct temperature range to ensure they are safe to dispense to patients.