Inspection outcome: Standards met
Last inspection: 25/04/2019
Pharmacy context
This is an independently owned pharmacy situated on a small shopping parade in a residential area of Eastcote. In addition to essential NHS services the pharmacy provides Medicines Use Reviews (MURs), New Medicine Service (NMS), seasonal influenza vaccinations, emergency hormonal contraception (EHC) and drug misuse support services including the prescription supply of some substance misuse treatments. The pharmacy also provides multi-compartment compliance aids for 25 to 30 people and has a prescription delivery service. The pharmacy is due to reintroduce a smoking cessation service in the next few weeks.
Inspection summary findings
Principle 1. Governance
The pharmacy’s working practices are safe and effective. Its team members understand their roles and responsibilities and keep people’s information safe. The pharmacy responds well to people’s feedback by making changes to improve the quality of its services. The team identifies and manages risks effectively. The pharmacy responds to any mistakes it makes during the dispensing process. It learns from these and takes action to avoid problems being repeated. But, it doesn’t always record what has happened or what it has done to stop the same mistakes from happening again. So, it may be missing opportunities to improve its day to day practice.
Principle 2. Staff
The pharmacy team manages its workload well and team members use their professional judgement to make decisions in the best interests of people. The pharmacy offers its team plenty of training support and materials to improve their skills. They are also able to set aside time at work for training. Pharmacy team members work well together. They are comfortable about providing feedback to each other and are involved in improving the pharmacy’s services.
Principle 3. Premises
The pharmacy's premises are generally secure, tidy and organised, and suitable for the provision of its services. But there is limited space to store medicines. Some items are stored on the floor which could increase the risk of trips or falls. The pharmacy has not refurbished its premises for many years and some areas are showing signs of general wear and tear.
Principle 4. Services, including medicines management
The pharmacy provides its services safely and effectively and makes them available to everyone. Staff give people the advice and support they need to help them use their medicines safely and properly. In general, the pharmacy manages its medicines safely and effectively. But, it was not scanning products with a unique barcode, as required by law. The pharmacy stores its medicines safely. And it carries out checks to help make sure that its medicines are fit for purpose. But some stock is not properly labelled. This means that staff may not be able to identify stock which has been recalled.
Principle 5. Equipment and facilities
The pharmacy has the right equipment and facilities for the services it provides, and it uses these to keep people’s 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 |