Inspection outcome: Standards met
Last inspection: 19/06/2024
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, supervised consumption of medicines and the Pharmacy First service under patient group directions (PGDs). The pharmacy supplies medicines in multi-compartment compliance packs to people who need this support to manage their medicines at home, and it offers a limited delivery service.
Inspection summary findings
Principle 1. Governance
Overall, the pharmacy delivers safe and effective services and keeps the records it needs to by law. Team members adequately protect people’s information and have the relevant training to safeguard the welfare of people using their services. The pharmacy consistently records mistakes that happen during the dispensing process to encourage learning from trends or patterns. People using the pharmacy’s services can easily provide feedback. The pharmacy uses written procedures to ensure that team members understand their responsibilities and how to carry out activities. However, the pharmacy does not always make the relevant written procedures easily accessible to its team members for them to refer to. This could make it harder for the team to work safely and consistently.
Principle 2. Staff
The pharmacy has enough staff for the services it provides and manages its workload safely. The team has the appropriate skill mix to ensure safe practice, and team members feel comfortable about raising concerns if needed.
Principle 3. Premises
The pharmacy is clean and generally tidy, with adequate space for providing its services safely. It keeps its premises safe and appropriately maintained. And people visiting the pharmacy can have a conversation with a team member in private. The premises are secure from unauthorised access when closed.
Principle 4. Services, including medicines management
The pharmacy largely delivers its services in a safe and effective manner, to a range of people with varying needs. It obtains its medicines from reputable sources, and generally manages them appropriately so that they are safe for people to use. Its team members identify prescriptions for people taking high‐risk medicines so that there is an opportunity to provide additional counselling information.
Principle 5. Equipment and facilities
The pharmacy has the equipment and facilities it needs for the services it provides. It maintains its equipment so that it is safe to use and uses it to help protect people’s personal information.
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 |