Inspection outcome: Standards met
Last inspection: 19/06/2024
Pharmacy context
This independent community pharmacy is located near to the centre of Bedford on a busy main road. Its main activity is dispensing NHS prescriptions. It also offers a range of other NHS services including the Pharmacy First service, emergency hormonal contraception, the hypertension case-finding service, seasonal flu vaccinations and the New Medicine Service. It delivers medicines to some people, and it supplies medicines in multi-compartment compliance packs to people who need this help to take their medicines at the right time. It provides a substance misuse service. And it dispenses medicines for residents of a small number of care homes.
Inspection summary findings
Principle 1. Governance
The pharmacy identifies and manages risks well so that people receive safe services. It largely keeps the records it needs to, and it protects people’s personal information. Its team members know how to protect vulnerable people and what they can and can’t do in the absence of a pharmacist. The pharmacy uses mistakes as opportunities to learn and improve. But, because it doesn’t always record these events, it might be missing patterns and trends.
Principle 2. Staff
The pharmacy has enough staff to provide its services safely. And its team members have either completed or are completing the right training for the roles they undertake. Team members can discuss concerns or other issues they may be having, in an open way. And there is some provision to help team members to keep their skills and knowledge current and to review how they are doing.
Principle 3. Premises
The pharmacy’s premises are well-maintained and are suitable for the services the pharmacy provides. People can have a conversation with a member of the pharmacy team in private.
Principle 4. Services, including medicines management
The pharmacy provides its services safely and it tries to make its services accessible to people with differing needs. It takes care when supplying higher-risk medicines so people get the advice they need to take their medicines safely. And its team members liaise with other healthcare providers about people’s care and the services the pharmacy provides when needed. It gets its medicines from appropriate sources, and it manages them reasonably well so they are safe to supply to people.
Principle 5. Equipment and facilities
The pharmacy has the equipment it needs to provide its services effectively. It checks that its equipment is working correctly.
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 |