Inspection outcome: Standards met
Last inspection: 20/06/2019
Pharmacy context
This is a large sized pharmacy on the main street in the town of Airdrie. It dispenses a large volume of NHS prescriptions per month, including for people receiving medicines in multi-compartmental compliance packs. It also supports people receiving supervised methadone doses. It provides the usual services found under the local health board Pharmacy First Scheme, including the minor ailments service. It doesn’t supply vaccinations.
Inspection summary findings
Principle 1. Governance
Members of the pharmacy team are clear about their roles and responsibilities. They work to professional standards and identify and manage risks effectively. There are documented procedures to support staff, but they don’t always follow these. The pharmacy team logs any mistakes it makes during the dispensing process. It learns from these and acts to avoid repeating errors. The pharmacy keeps its records up to date to help show that it is providing safe services. The pharmacy enables people to give feedback. And it uses this feedback to improve the services it offers. It tells people how it uses their private information and keeps it secure. The pharmacy team members understand how they can help to protect the welfare of vulnerable people.
Principle 2. Staff
There are enough pharmacy team members for the services provided. The pharmacy team members are competent. And they have the appropriate skills and qualifications for their roles. They work effectively together in a supportive environment. And undertake regular learning both in-store and at home. They learn from near miss reviews and from people’s feedback. And they act to improve safety. They also feedback their own ideas and act on them to improve their services.
Principle 3. Premises
The pharmacy is clean and well maintained. And it provides people with private facilities to access its services.
Principle 4. Services, including medicines management
The pharmacy provides the normal range of services under the Scottish contract. The pharmacy team members mostly use a range of safe working practices. These include use of audit trails and baskets for dispensing. These assist with the near miss process and in preventing items becoming mixed. The pharmacy has effective processes for dispensing medicines in multi-compartmental compliance packs. This includes completing accurate descriptions for medicines in the pack, so people can identify them in case of queries. And a robust way of recording requests for changes of medication. The pharmacy team generally ensure high-risk medications are appropriately managed. Those arrangements for medicines containing valproate lacked evidence of that management.
Principle 5. Equipment and facilities
The pharmacy has sufficient resources in place to effectively provide the services on offer.
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 |