Pharmacy context
The pharmacy is in a parade of businesses near a doctor's surgery in a residential area of Luton. 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 supply of emergency hormonal contraception (EHC), prescription collection and delivery, substance misuse and treatment for malaria, meningitis ACWY and seasonal flu vaccinations. Enforcement action has been taken against this pharmacy, which remains in force at the time of this inspection, and there are restrictions on the provision of some services. The enforcement action taken allows the pharmacy to continue providing other services, which are not affected by the restrictions imposed.
Inspection summary findings
Principle 1. Governance
Overall. the pharmacy’s working practices are generally safe and effective. It has adequate written instructions to help team members identify and manage risks. But they do not always follow all steps so those instructions may not fully reflect current practice. The pharmacy's team members mostly keep the records they need to so they can show the pharmacy is providing safe services. They protect people's private information and understand their role in safeguarding vulnerable people.
Principle 2. Staff
The pharmacy has enough team members who are trained or in training. They work well together to manage the workload. They are aware of the potential to misuse certain medicines so they refer inappropriate purchase requests to the pharmacist.
Principle 3. Premises
The pharmacy's premises are generally safe, secure and suitable for the provision of pharmacy services. The pharmacy prevents people accessing its premises when it is closed so that it keeps its medicines and people's information safe.
Principle 4. Services, including medicines management
The pharmacy stays open later than usual and people can easily access the pharmacy’s services. It gets its medicines from reputable sources to protect people from harm. Members of the team store medicines securely at the correct temperature so that medicines are safe to use. They don’t always do enough to make sure that people have all the information they need to use their medicines safely. Team members know what to do if any medicines or devices need to be returned to the suppliers to protect patient safety.
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 |