Pharmacy context
The pharmacy is in a predominantly business area with low residential population. It provides health advice and dispenses private and NHS prescriptions. The pharmacy supplies medicines in multi-compartment compliance packs for people who have difficulty taking their medicines at the right time. Other available services include new medicines service (NMS), blood pressure monitoring, travel clinic medicines, prescribing, blood tests and seasonal flu vaccination vaccinations. The pharmacy offers some services via its website https://essentialslondon.com such as private GP and prescriber clinics. The aesthetics service is taking place outside of the registered premises it is not included in the report.
Inspection summary findings
Principle 1. Governance
The pharmacy does not routinely document risk assessments (RAs) for some services it provides. And it does not adequately set out its processes in writing to assess and manage the risks involved in providing the prescribing service. Such as consultation questionnaires which are specific to each condition which the prescriber treats and include reasons the supply was refused. And which ask for consent to share information with the person's regular GP to independently verify the person's medical information. So there is a risk the pharmacy could supply medicines inappropriately based on false information and the person's GP may be unaware of treatment they obtain elsewhere. Otherwise the pharmacy's working practices are safe and effective. It has adequate written instructions in place for its team members to follow to help manage risks and to make sure they work safely. The pharmacy team members do discuss their mistakes and take action to prevent them happening again although they do not always record their mistakes so they may be missing opportunities to spot patterns and learn from them. The pharmacy mostly keeps the records it needs to by law. So it can show the pharmacy generally supplies medicines safely. Members of the pharmacy team protect people’s private information, and the pharmacist is appropriately trained in how to safeguard the welfare of vulnerable people.
Principle 2. Staff
The pharmacy’s team members work well together and manage their workload. The pharmacy supports the trainee pharmacists’ formal training and allocates protected learning time. Members of the team are able to raise concerns and provide feedback to improve the pharmacy’s services.
Principle 3. Premises
The pharmacy's premises are bright, secure and suitable for the provision of healthcare services. The pharmacy prevents people accessing its premises when it is closed so its medicines stock is safe, and people's private information is protected. And the website generally sells cosmetic type skin preparations.
Principle 4. Services, including medicines management
Principle 5. Equipment and facilities
The pharmacy has the equipment and facilities it needs for the services it offers. The pharmacy uses its equipment appropriately and keeps people's private 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 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.