Inspection outcome: Standards met
Last inspection: 15/01/2024
Pharmacy context
This is a community pharmacy in a supermarket, based in a large town in Kent. There are areas nearby which are relatively deprived, and the local population is of mixed ages with a relatively large proportion of older patients. The main business of the pharmacy is dispensing NHS prescriptions, of which it dispenses around 6000 items a month. Other services offered include:
OTC sales
Medicine use reviews (MURs) and new medicines service (NMS)
Blister packing (around 10 community patients)
Flu vaccinations, antimalarials (Malarone), and erectile dysfunction medicines under patient group directions (PGDs)
Smoking cessation
The pharmacy is planning to offer a meningitis vaccination service in the future. The pharmacy is open 08:00 to 23:00 Mondays, 07:00 to 23:00 Tuesday to Friday, 07:00 to 22:00 on Saturdays, and 10:00 to 16:00 on Sundays.
Inspection summary findings
Principle 1. Governance
The pharmacy generally identifies and manages the risks associated with its services to help provide them safely. It records and regularly reviews any mistakes that happen during the dispensing process. And it uses this information to help make its services safer and reduce any future risk. It protects people’s personal information well. And people can provide feedback about the pharmacy. The pharmacy largely keeps its records up to date and accurate. And team members understand their role in protecting vulnerable people.
Principle 2. Staff
Team members do the right training for their roles. They are provided with some ongoing training to support their learning needs and maintain their knowledge and skills. And there are enough team members to provide the pharmacy's services safely. Team members can take professional decisions to ensure people taking medicines are safe. And these are not affected by the pharmacy’s targets. They can raise concerns to do with the pharmacy or other issues affecting people’s safety.
Principle 3. Premises
The premises provide a safe, secure, and clean environment for the pharmacy's services. And people can have a conversation with a team member in a private area.
Principle 4. Services, including medicines management
The pharmacy provides its services safely and manages them well. People with a range of needs can access the pharmacy’s services. The pharmacy gets its medicines from reputable suppliers and stores them properly. It responds appropriately to drug alerts and product recalls, so that people get medicines and medical devices that are safe to use. The pharmacy highlights prescriptions for higher-risk medicines so there is an opportunity to speak with people when they collect these medicines.
Principle 5. Equipment and facilities
The pharmacy has the equipment it needs to provide its services safely. It uses its equipment to help protect people’s personal information.
What do the inspection outcomes mean?
After an inspection each pharmacy receives one overall outcome. This will be either Standards met or Standards not all met
| The pharmacy has met all the standards for registered pharmacies | |
| The pharmacy has not met one or more of the standards for registered pharmacies |
What do the summary findings for each principle mean?
The standards for registered pharmacies are made up of five principles. The pharmacy will also receive one of four possible findings for each of these principles. These are:
| The pharmacy delivers an innovative service and benefits the whole community and performs well against the standards | |
| The pharmacy delivers positive outcomes for patients and performs well against most of the standards | |
| The pharmacy meets all the standards | |
| The pharmacy has not met one or more standards |