Curate Health (9012358)

Pharmacy context

This pharmacy is located in a business park in Bishop’s Stortford. The pharmacy is closed to the public. And it provides its services online via their website, www.curatehealth.co.uk. It currently offers a private prescribing service for the treatment of weight loss. People can access this service initially by completing an online consultation questionnaire. These questionnaires are reviewed by pharmacist independent prescribers (PIPs). And PIPs can issue private prescriptions for the medicines following consultations, where appropriate, which are then dispensed by the pharmacy and delivered to people’s homes.

This was a reinspection following an inspection in October 2024 where the pharmacy did not meet Standards 1.1, 1.4, 1.6, 1.8 and 4.2. This reinspection focused on those Standards which had previously not been met. It found there were ongoing weaknesses relating to record keeping and verification of information provided by people which indicated that some supplies may not always be safe and appropriate. However, since the last inspection, the pharmacy has more fully considered and mitigated the risks associated with its prescribing service. And it has updated its online questionnaire to ensure it obtains more information from people to help inform prescribing decisions. The pharmacy now makes the appropriate checks to ensure vulnerable people can be identified. And it then provides general support information via email to those identified people. But its prescribers do not routinely contact these people on an individual basis so they may not always receive any additional advice or support specific to them. The pharmacy has reviewed how it handles queries from people about its service. And it has increased the number of staff in its customer service team which means they can respond to people in a timelier manner. However, dealing with queries and complaints appropriately and in a timely way is an ongoing area for improvement.