Pharmacy context
The pharmacy is situated amongst a small number of retail shops in a residential area of Wallasey, in the Wirral area of Merseyside. The pharmacy dispenses approximately 9,500 NHS prescription items each month. It provides original pack dispensing to one care home with approximately 50 residents. It also provides a substance misuse service to 25 people (one supervised consumption), multi-compartment compliance aids for approximately 120 community patients and prescription collection and delivery as services. 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
The pharmacy generally manages the risks associated with its services and protects peoples’ information. Members of the pharmacy team are clear about their roles and responsibilities. They record their mistakes so that they can learn from them. And act to help stop the same sort of mistakes from happening again. The pharmacy keeps the records required by law, but some information is missing, which could make it harder to understand what has happened if queries arise.
Principle 2. Staff
The pharmacy has enough staff to manage its workload safely. The team members are comfortable about providing feedback to the pharmacist. And they receive feedback on their performance. The pharmacy enables its team members to act on their own initiative and use their professional judgement, but they lack a structured approach to ongoing training could mean their skills and knowledge may not always be up to date.
Principle 3. Premises
The pharmacy is safe, clean, and properly maintained. The layout is appropriate for the services provided.
Principle 4. Services, including medicines management
The pharmacy’s services are accessible to most people and they are generally well managed, so people receive their medicines safely. But members of the pharmacy team do not always know when high-risk medicines are being handed out. So, they may not always make extra checks or give people advice about how to take them. The pharmacy team sources and generally stores medicines safely and carries out some checks to help make sure that medicines are in good condition and suitable to supply.
Principle 5. Equipment and facilities
The pharmacy has the equipment it needs to provide services safely. It is generally appropriately maintained, and it is used in a way that protects privacy.
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 |