| 1.1 |
At the time of inspection, the pharmacy could not sufficiently demonstrate that it had appropriately reviewed and mitigated the risks associated with its services, in particular working with a third-party prescribing service and providing its services at a distance. |
1. A risk assessment has been completed identifying all risks associated with providing pharmacy services with the safeguards in place required to mitigate the risk.
See Appendix 1 for a copy of the risk
assessment.
This will be reviewed on an annual basis or sooner, based on a change in GPhC guidance, an incident, or a new risk is identified.
2. A risk assessment has been completed identifying all risks associated with the prescribing CQC entity, mapped against the 10 GMC principles, with the safeguards in place required to mitigate the risk. See Appendix 2 for a copy of the risk assessment. This will be reviewed on an annual basis or sooner, based on a change in CQC guidance, an incident, or a new risk is identified.
3. A document has been created which outlines the company structure since the split of dispensing and prescribing services between CMS and MedExpress pharmacy. The document highlights which service is responsible for each activity. See Appendix 3 for a copy of the document. 4. A service level agreement document has been created for CMS limited (the prescribing function). See Appendix 4 for a copy of the document. 5. A weekly meeting has been established for key members of the pharmacy team, prescribing team, and the GP lead, with the objective of enhancing communication, sharing updates across services, and providing a platform to address any concerns from either party. This has been implemented on 11/02/2025. |
28/02/2025 |
12/02/2025 |
| 4.2 |
The pharmacy relies on the third-party prescribing service to make clinical checks about medicines people are prescribed. The pharmacy cannot demonstrate that there is sufficient clinical oversight of its dispensing process. So, this could increase the risk that people receive medicines which are not clinically appropriate for them. |
1. A clinical check process SOP has been developed for dispensary pharmacists and is being followed in the pharmacy. Pharmacists
will add their initials against the dispensing label when they have clinically checked the
order. This has been implemented already. See Appendix 5 for a copy of the document.
2. There are plans for a new feature which will be implemented to the interface, whereby a clinical review checkbox must be selected by a
pharmacist for each order prior to the order being ready for dispense in the pharmacy. This technological feature will mirror the operations
in our pharmacy in the USA. This will be implemented in the UK by June 2025.
3. A communication workstream has been established on Jira between the pharmacy and prescribing services, enabling the pharmacy to
communicate with prescribers and GP leads, and escalate orders where there are clinical concerns regarding appropriateness. Prescribers can then respond directly to the
escalating pharmacist and escalating
pharmacists will receive an initial response within 2 hours of raising a concern. This is already in place. |
28/02/2025 |
12/02/2025 |
