Pharmacy context
This is a busy pharmacy located on a main road close to the centre of town. It stays open for 100 hours per week, opening early in the morning and closing at midnight every day except Sundays. The pharmacy dispenses NHS prescriptions and sells a range of over-the-counter medicines. It supplies a large number of medicines in multi-compartment compliance aid packs to help people take their medicines at the right time. The pharmacy also provides an online prescribing service (www.prescriptiondoctor.com) and the prescriber is an Italian doctor based in Romania. People can request a prescription by filling in an online questionnaire which is then assessed by the prescriber and pharmacist before the pharmacy supplies the medicine. The website offers prescription medicines for a range of conditions but mainly supplies codeine containing medicines for the treatment of pain.
Inspection summary findings
Principle 1. Governance
The pharmacy does not consistently manage all of the risks involved with its online prescribing service. This means that there are some risks to patient safety. The pharmacy works with an Italian doctor and the prescribing service is based in Romania and not registered with UK regulators. And the pharmacy cannot demonstrate that the prescriber always follows UK guidelines and has appropriate insurance arrangements for these activities. This means the pharmacy cannot show that the prescribing service is safe and vulnerable patients might be able to obtain medicines that could cause them harm. The pharmacy team generally keep the records required by law, but some details are missing, which could make it harder to understand what has happened if queries arise. Team members do not make full records or review their mistakes, so they may be missing out on some learning opportunities.
Principle 2. Staff
The pharmacy has enough staff to manage its workload and the pharmacy team members are qualified for the jobs they do. They get some ongoing training to help them keep up to date. But they do not record this, so they might not always identify gaps in their knowledge. The team members work well together, and they are comfortable providing feedback to their manager.
Principle 3. Premises
Principle 4. Services, including medicines management
The pharmacy does not make enough checks to ensure medicines supplied through the prescribing service are appropriate for the people they supply. And it supplies some medicines which may not be appropriate for supply via a remote consultation because they require physical examination, blood tests or monitoring. The pharmacy routinely supplies medicines without informing the patient's regular doctor or making sure they agree to the supply. This means people's conditions might not be properly monitored, and their use of medication may not be appropriately controlled. The pharmacy offers a range of healthcare services which are easy for people to access. The pharmacy gets its medicines from reputable sources but does not always store them appropriately. And the fridge temperature is not properly monitored so the pharmacy cannot show that it stores medicines requiring refrigeration at the correct temperature.
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 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.