Inspection outcome: Standards met
Last inspection: 09/01/2024
Pharmacy context
This is a family-owned independent pharmacy in a largely residential area of Kingston-upon-Thames, near the railway station. It dispenses people’s prescriptions, sells over-the-counter medicines and provides healthcare advice. It also supplies medicines in multi-compartment compliance packs for people who have difficulty managing their medicines. It has a website which it uses to highlight the services it has available.
Inspection summary findings
Principle 1. Governance
The pharmacy provides its team members with clear written instructions on how to carry out their tasks safely and effectively. It is good at making sure they know where to find those instructions and other important paperwork. The pharmacy regularly reviews the mistakes its team members make and takes appropriate action to reduce the chances of similar mistakes happening again. It keeps all the records that it should, making sure they are easily accessible. It listens to what people say about it and finds creative solutions in response. Its team members have an appropriate understanding of their role in helping protect vulnerable people. They manage and protect people’s confidential information well and let them know it will be used.
Principle 2. Staff
The pharmacy has enough staff to manage its workload safely and effectively. Pharmacy team members are very well-trained and there was a clear culture of continually improving their knowledge. They work well together and can make suggestions to improve safety where appropriate.
Principle 3. Premises
The pharmacy’s premises provide a secure and professional environment for people to receive its services. The team keeps them very clean and tidy, presenting a suitably professional image. The premises include a private room which the team uses for some of its services and for private conversations. The pharmacy’s website provides people with helpful information about its services.
Principle 4. Services, including medicines management
The pharmacy delivers its services in a safe and effective manner, and it makes them easily accessible to people. The pharmacy sources, stores and manages its medicines safely, and so makes sure that all the medicines it supplies are fit for purpose. It responds well to drug alerts or product recalls to make sure that people only get medicines or devices which are safe for them to take. It identifies people supplied with high-risk medicines so that they can be given extra information they may need to take their medicines safely. But it doesn’t always keep a suitable record of the checks it makes.
Principle 5. Equipment and facilities
The pharmacy has the necessary equipment and facilities for the services it provides, and it makes sure that they are adequately maintained. The pharmacy makes sure that the way its team uses those facilities keeps people’s private information suitably protected.
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 |