E-Surgery, Evaro and E-Pharmacy (9012167)

Inspection summary findings

Principle 1. Governance

The pharmacy does not adequately consider and mitigate all the risks of its prescribing service. And there is a risk that vulnerable people might be able to obtain medicines that are not clinically appropriate for them. It has addressed risks regarding the supply of treatments for asthma identified during a previous inspection of the service. But medicines are generally prescribed by relying solely on an online questionnaire. And the pharmacy does not routinely use other resources to verify the information given to it by people to ensure that the treatments it provides are safe and appropriate. The pharmacy does not always obtain consent to communicate with a person's regular practitioner or take additional steps to ensure a medicine is appropriate when prescribing medicines for long-term conditions or higher risk medicines in the absence of consent. So, there is an increased chance of the pharmacy supplying medicines to people when they are not clinically appropriate. However, with regards to other activities, the pharmacy keeps the records it needs to by law. And it manages people's personal information safely and it regularly records and reviews any mistakes so it can learn and improve from these.

Principle 2. Staff

The pharmacy has enough team members to manage its workload effectively. Its team members do the right training for their roles and the services they provide. And they do ongoing learning to keep their knowledge and skills up to date. They have a regular formal review of their progress. And team members can raise any concerns that they have. 

Principle 3. Premises

The pharmacy’s website gives people information about the pharmacy and the prescribers it uses. So, people can check who prescribes their medicines. The premises are very clean and tidy and have more than enough space for team members to safely carry out their work, and the pharmacy is kept secure from unauthorised access.

Principle 4. Services, including medicines management

The pharmacy does not always provide all its services safely. It prescribes a range of medicines including higher-risk medicines and medicines for conditions which require ongoing monitoring. And in the majority of cases, it cannot demonstrate that it seeks sufficient assurances from people requesting these medicines to make sure they are only supplied when clinically appropriate. This increases the risk of the pharmacy supplying medicines to people when they are not clinically appropriate. However, the pharmacy gets its medicines from reputable suppliers and stores them properly.

Principle 5. Equipment and facilities

The pharmacy has the equipment and facilities it needs for its services. And it uses this equipment to help protect people’s personal information.