Pharmacy context
This pharmacy is situated on a busy high street and serves a range of people. The pharmacy provides its services online, and members of the public cannot physically access the pharmacy. It dispenses prescription medicines and sells over-the-counter medicines to people accessing its services via the internet. It offers a prescribing service and dispenses private prescriptions generated by a pharmacist independent prescriber who works remotely. The pharmacy also provides a delivery service. This inspection was undertaken during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Inspection summary findings
Principle 1. Governance
The pharmacy does not sufficiently identify and manage the risks associated with its online prescribing service. And it does not audit or review the safety and quality of its prescribing service. The pharmacy's record keeping is poor. However, it generally protects people’s personal information adequately. And people can provide feedback about the pharmacy's services.
Principle 2. Staff
The pharmacy has enough staff for the services it provides. Members of the team do some training. But they
don’t always do regular ongoing training, so it may make it harder for them to
keep their skills and knowledge up to date. The pharmacy does not have a robust
contingency plan in place. So, it may be harder for it to ensure the continuity
of its services in an emergency.
Principle 3. Premises
The pharmacy’s website allows people to choose a prescription-only medicine before beginning a consultation with a prescriber. This could mean that they may not receive the most suitable treatment option for their needs. The pharmacy provides an adequate environment to deliver it services from. But it could do more to keep its premises clean and organised.
Principle 4. Services, including medicines management
The pharmacy does not always provide its services safely. It cannot always demonstrate that it shares details of supplies made with peoples’ GPs or signposts to other services appropriately. It does not maintain clear audit trails between the prescriber, GP and pharmacist which may mean that important information is not accessible to the relevant people. The pharmacy gets medicines from licensed suppliers, but it doesn’t store them securely or routinely date check its stock medicines. This increases the risk that people may get medicines that are not suitable to use. The pharmacy cannot
demonstrate that it disposes of its waste medicines safely. However, the pharmacy’s
services are accessible to people. The pharmacy reacts appropriately to
medicine safety alerts. But it does not always keep records of what action it
has taken. So, it may be harder for it to show what it had done in response.
Principle 5. Equipment and facilities
The pharmacy has the equipment that it needs to provide its services safely. It generally uses it
properly to help protect people’s personal information.
Pharmacy details
Lower Ground Floor
46 Woodgrange Road
London
E70QH
United Kingdom
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.