Inspection outcome: Standards met
Last inspection: 18/05/2021
Pharmacy context
The pharmacy is in a small shopping precinct on the outskirts of St Albans in Hertfordshire. 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 prescription delivery, discharge medicines service (DMS), Pharmacy Collect Service (supply of lateral flow tests), substance misuse, NHS health checks, emergency hormonal contraception (EHC), Stop smoking and seasonal flu vaccination service. The inspection took place during the COVID-19 pandemic. All aspects of the pharmacy were not inspected.
Inspection summary findings
Principle 1. Governance
The pharmacy’s working practices are generally safe and effective. Its team members have introduced new ways of working to protect people against COVID‐19 infection. They keep adequate records of mistakes they make when dispensing medicines. And they review these to learn and help prevent the same errors happening again. The pharmacy keeps up-to-date records to show it supplies its medicines safely and legally. The pharmacy's team members know what to do to protect people's welfare. And they keep people's private information safe. The pharmacy has written procedures which tell staff how to work safely.
Principle 2. Staff
The pharmacy team works well together and manages the workload in the pharmacy. The pharmacy has enough staff to provide safe services. Team members are adequately supported in keeping their knowledge up to date. They are comfortable about providing feedback to the pharmacist.
Principle 3. Premises
The pharmacy's premises are mostly safe, clean and suitable for the provision of its services. Team members have introduced new ways of working to help protect people from COVID‐19 infection. The pharmacy prevents people accessing its premises when it is closed so that it keeps its medicines and people's information safe.
Principle 4. Services, including medicines management
People with a variety of needs can access the pharmacy’s services. The pharmacy gets its medicines from reputable sources to protect people from harm. Team members know what to do if any medicines or devices need to be returned to the suppliers. The pharmacy team members make satisfactory records when checking that high-risk medicines are safe for people to take. So they can show they give appropriate advice to protect patient safety. They give helpful information to people about where they can get other support.
Principle 5. Equipment and facilities
The pharmacy has the equipment and facilities it needs for the services it offers. The pharmacy uses its equipment 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 |