Pharmacy context
This pharmacy is located in
a small village in Bedfordshire. The pharmacy dispenses both NHS and private
prescriptions. And it delivers medicines to people’s homes. It also provides
medicines in multi-compartment compliance packs to people who need help managing
their medicines. And people can get their flu vaccination and COVID-19
vaccination at the pharmacy.
Inspection summary findings
Principle 1. Governance
The pharmacy has written
procedures to make sure its team members know how to complete tasks safely. And
its team members generally follow these. The pharmacy makes records when
mistakes happen during the dispensing process. But sometimes it doesn’t record
enough information about these mistakes. This may make it harder to respond to
queries regarding mistakes that occur. Pharmacy team members take the necessary
steps to protect people’s private information and are aware of how to protect
vulnerable people. And the pharmacy keeps the records it needs to by law.
Principle 2. Staff
The pharmacy has enough
staff to manage its workload effectively. Team members complete appropriate
training so that they can carry out their roles and responsibilities. And
support is provided to those on training courses to help them progress. Team
members communicate effectively with each other and can raise concerns if they
need to.
Principle 3. Premises
The pharmacy has very
little clear work surface space for prescriptions to be assembled and checked
in a safe manner.
And there are areas which are
untidy and disorganised. This increases the risks of mistakes happening. However,
it is clean and it has a consultation room which is suitable for the services
it offers.
Principle 4. Services, including medicines management
The pharmacy obtains its
medicines and devices from licensed suppliers. But it doesn’t effectively check
the expiry dates of these medicines and devices or always separate date-expired
items from other stock. This increases the chances that it provides people with
medicines that are not safe to use. However, the pharmacy stores its medicines
securely and at the required temperatures. And its team provides additional advice to people who are supplied high-risk
medicines. It delivers medicines to
people’s homes, but it does not retain an audit trail for this service. So, it
may be harder for the pharmacy to respond to any queries about its delivery
service.
Principle 5. Equipment and facilities
The pharmacy has all the
equipment it needs to provide its services effectively. And it uses its
equipment in a way which helps 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 does 'pharmacy has not met all standards' mean?
When a pharmacy has not met all standards, they are required to complete an improvement action plan, which you can find via a link at the top left of this page. We monitor progress to check the improvements are made and inspect again after six months to make sure the pharmacy is maintaining these improvements. A new report will then be published.