Pharmacy context
This independent community pharmacy is located on the corner of a busy road opposite Highgate underground station. It provides a variety of services including dispensing of NHS and private prescriptions and supervised consumption of medicines. It also provides medicines in multi-compartment compliance packs to people who have difficulty remembering to take their medicines.
Inspection summary findings
Principle 1. Governance
The pharmacy does not always make its written procedures accessible to its team members for them to refer to. And these written procedures have not been read by all team members, nor are they reviewed regularly. This increases the risk that team members are not working safely. However, otherwise the pharmacy generally manages the risks associated with its services. And it has appropriate insurance arrangements in place. The pharmacy generally keeps its records in line with requirements though its private prescription records do not always contain complete information about the prescriber. And people can give feedback to the pharmacy about its service.
Principle 2. Staff
The pharmacy has enough team members to deliver a safe service. And team members do the right training for their roles. But team members do not always receive ongoing training and they receive no formal review of their progress. This could mean they are potentially missing opportunities to improve their knowledge and skills. Some team members do always not communicate appropriately, and this increases the risk that patients are being disadvantaged. However, team members have no concerns raising any issues they have.
Principle 3. Premises
The pharmacy is generally clean and tidy and provides a safe and appropriate environment for people to access its services. It has a consultation room for people to have private conversations. And the pharmacy is kept secure from unauthorised access.
Principle 4. Services, including medicines management
The pharmacy does not always store its medicines safely or appropriately. And it cannot show that it takes the right action in response to safety alerts and recalls of medicines and medical devices to protect people’s health and wellbeing. However, it can cater to individuals with different needs.
Principle 5. Equipment and facilities
The pharmacy generally has the equipment it needs to provide an effective service. And it uses its equipment to protect people’s privacy. But it could do more to make sure there is an accurate audit trail when its team members access the NHS spine.
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.