Inspection outcome: Standards met
Last inspection: 05/12/2025
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Pharmacy context
A small local High Street pharmacy belonging to the Boots pharmacy chain. The pharmacy is located in the centre of Alton and is within walking distance of many of the local shops and residential properties. Hythe is a small semi-rural Hampshire town. It has a predominantly affluent, elderly population of a white British background. The local surgery is within a 10 to 15 minute walk of the pharmacy there is one other main surgery which is a short drive away.
NHS dispensing is the main activity with an average of 1,600 prescription items dispensed each month. A further 4,000 prescription items are processed via a ‘hub and spoke’ model at a central offsite dispensary (DSP). The pharmacy offers a repeat prescription ordering service and a prescription delivery service. The majority of prescriptions come from the two local surgeries with only a small number from other surgeries out with the local area.
85% of prescriptions are received electronically. The remainder are either brought in on foot by ‘walk-in’ customers or collected from surgeries on behalf of patients. A significant service is the dispensing of Monitored Dosage System trays (MDS). The pharmacy has 150 patients who have their medicines supplied this way. The majority of these patients receive their trays on a monthly basis. The pharmacy has a MDS room dedicated for the purposes of MDS tray dispensing.
The pharmacy provides flu vaccinations under an NHS PGD and an additional private PGD approximately 60% of those vaccinated had been vaccinated under the NHS PGD since the service began at the beginning of the previous month. The flu vaccination season was beginning to tail off having reached its peak four to five weeks earlier. During the period of peak demand 15 patients were being vaccinated each day this had now reduced to one or two. 497 patients in total had been vaccinated.
Additional services include Medicines Use reviews (MURs) with 274 patients having received a review so far since the beginning of the financial year. Although the New Medicines Service (NMS) is also available there is less demand for this service with approximately 30 patients having successfully been counselled over the same 8 month time period. The pharmacy also provides an online travel health prescription service for anti-malarial tablets. Drug misuse services are available and are currently provided to 2 patients.
The pharmacy is open 9.00 am to 5.30 pm from Monday to Saturday and 10am to 4pm on Sunday.
Inspection summary findings
Principle 1. Governance
Principle 2. Staff
Principle 3. Premises
Principle 4. Services, including medicines management
Principle 5. Equipment and facilities
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 |