Inspection outcome: Standards met
Last inspection: 05/11/2025
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Pharmacy context
A small, traditional, independently run community pharmacy which had been under the same ownership for over 40 years. The pharmacy is run by a husband and wife partnership who run the pharmacy with the help of a regular full time locum and two Health Care assistants.
The Pharmacy is situated on a parade of shops on a busy road running through a residential area of Ickenham. Ickenham is an economically stable suburb of north west London. Customers of the pharmacy tend to be regulars who live locally and include a cross section of the community but predominantly the elderly. The pharmacy is open from 09.00 am to 1.00pm and 2pm to 5pm Monday to Friday and 9.00am to 2.00 pm on Saturday.
The pharmacy’s main activity is the dispensing of NHS prescriptions although prescription numbers are relatively low with only 2,500 prescriptions dispensed each month. The majority of prescriptions come from a variety of local GP practices. 80% of prescriptions are obtained electronically and approximately 15% are collected from surgeries by one of the owners. The remainder are brought in by customers on foot.
Historically the Pharmacy has offered a core range of services which other than dispensing has included prescription collection and deliveries, a managed repeat prescription service, a smoking cessation service and the provision of medicines in Monitored Dosage System (MDS) trays to 12 patients. Whilst the pharmacy can provide drug misuse services it currently does not have any clients. Other services offered include Medicines Use reviews (MURs), and a New Medicines Service (NMS).
Inspection summary findings
Principle 1. Governance
Principle 2. Staff
Principle 3. Premises
Principle 4. Services, including medicines management
Principle 5. Equipment and facilities
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 |