Inspection outcome: Standards met
Last inspection: 26/05/2022
Pharmacy context
The pharmacy is in a street near Euston Station in northwest London. It dispenses NHS and private prescriptions, sells over‐the‐counter medicines and provides health advice. The pharmacy dispenses medicines in multi‐compartment compliance aids for people who have difficulty managing their medicines. Services include seasonal flu vaccinations, prescription delivery, stop smoking and Selfcare Pharmacy First. This was a follow-up visit after completion of the action plan issued at the previous visit. It took place during the COVID‐19 pandemic. All aspects of the pharmacy were not inspected.
Inspection summary findings
Principle 1. Governance
The pharmacy's working practices are mostly safe and effective. It has satisfactory written instructions to help make sure the pharmacy’s team members work safely. The pharmacy asks people for feedback so it can improve its services. The pharmacy's team members generally keep the records they need to by law so they can show the pharmacy is providing its services safely. They understand their role in safeguarding the wellbeing of vulnerable people. And they protect people's private information.
Principle 2. Staff
The pharmacy has enough trained team members who work together to deliver its services safely and manage the workload. They keep their knowledge and skills up to date. Team members are comfortable in providing feedback about services.
Principle 3. Premises
The public facing areas of the pharmacy are tidy and overall, its premises are generally suitable for the provision of healthcare services. The pharmacy prevents people accessing its premises when it is closed so that it keeps its medicines safe and protects people's information.
Principle 4. Services, including medicines management
People with different needs can easily access the pharmacy's services. The pharmacy opens early and stays open later than is usual. Overall, the pharmacy's working practices are generally safe and effective. It mostly obtains, stores and supplies its stock appropriately. The pharmacy team members know what to do if any medicines or devices need to be returned to the suppliers. But they don’t keep all of the medicines in properly labelled containers. So they may be missed when checking stock in response to an alert or when date-checking. The pharmacy team members make sure people have all the information they need to use their medicines safely. They provide a description of each medicine when they pack these together in compliance aids, but the writing may make it difficult to read sometimes.
Principle 5. Equipment and facilities
The pharmacy has the equipment and facilities it needs for the services it offers. The pharmacy uses its equipment appropriately to keep people's private information safe.
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 |