Pharmacy context
The pharmacy is located in a shopping precinct in a residential area of Hemel Hempstead. It dispenses NHS and private prescriptions, sells over-the-counter medicines and provides health advice. The pharmacy supplies medicines in multi-compartment compliance aids for people who have difficulty managing their medicines. Services include: substance misuse and prescription collection and delivery.
Inspection summary findings
Principle 1. Governance
The pharmacy's working practices are generally safe and effective. It has written procedures which tell the pharmacy team how to complete tasks. But these are due for review. The pharmacy’s team members do not always record their mistakes and who made them. So they may miss the opportunity to learn and prevent the same errors happening again. Team members who prepare medicines do not always initial dispensing labels. This makes it harder to find out who was involved if there is a mistake or query. The pharmacy mostly keeps its records up to date which show medicines are supplied safely and legally. The pharmacy team members keep people's private information safe and understand their role in protecting vulnerable people.
Principle 2. Staff
The pharmacy team members manage the workload effectively within the pharmacy and work well together. They are comfortable about suggesting ways to improve the pharmacy's services.
Principle 3. Premises
The pharmacy's premises are clean, secure and generally suitable for the services provided. The pharmacy prevents people accessing the premises when it is closed and keeps medicines and information safe.
Principle 4. Services, including medicines management
People with different needs can access the pharmacy's services and its team members give advice to people about where they can get other support. They make sure people have the information they need to use their medicines safely. The pharmacy gets its medicines from reputable sources to protect people from harm. The pharmacy team members store medicines securely at the correct temperature and take the right action if medicines need to be returned to the suppliers. The pharmacy does not keep a complete record of prescription deliveries so it may not be able to prove that medicines have reached the right people.
Principle 5. Equipment and facilities
The pharmacy has the equipment and facilities it needs for the services it provides. It uses these appropriately to keep 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 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 |