Inspection outcome: Standards met
Last inspection: 23/05/2019
Pharmacy context
The pharmacy is in a row of shops in the suburbs of Huddersfield. And, it is open seven days a week. The pharmacy mainly dispenses NHS prescriptions and sells a range of over-the-counter medicines. It provides a substance misuse service, including supervised consumption and needle exchange. And, it supplies and multi-compartmental compliance packs to nursing homes and people living in their own homes. Pharmacy team members provide a stop smoking service, a minor ailments service and head lice detection and treatment. They provide emergency supplies of medicines via the NHS Urgent Medicines Supply Advanced Service (NUMSAS).
Inspection summary findings
Principle 1. Governance
The pharmacy has procedures to identify and manage risks to its services. It has systems in place to manage complaints. And it listens to people’s feedback and makes changes to help improve pharmacy services. It maintains the pharmacy records it must by law. Pharmacy team members read and follow the procedures. They know how to keep people’s information secure. And, they are clear about what to do if there is a concern about a vulnerable child or adult. But, they are not receiving regular training to help keep their knowledge up to date. They record and discuss mistakes that happen. And they use this information to learn and make changes to help prevent similar mistakes happening again. But they don’t always discuss or record every mistake or enough detail about why mistakes happen. So, they may miss opportunities to improve.
Principle 2. Staff
The pharmacy team members have the right qualifications and skills for their roles and the services they provide. They complete training ad-hoc and discuss learning with the pharmacist. They reflect on their own performance informally. But, they don’t have a formal process to discuss their performance or individual training needs. So, they may not effectively tailor learning to their individual needs to make sure their knowledge and skills are up to date. The pharmacy team members can discuss issues and act on ideas to support the delivery of services.
Principle 3. Premises
The pharmacy is clean and properly maintained. It provides a suitable space for the health services provided. And the pharmacy has a room where people can speak to pharmacy team members privately.
Principle 4. Services, including medicines management
The pharmacy is accessible to people. And it generally provides its services safely and effectively. It sources its medicines from licensed suppliers. And it generally stores and manages it medicines effectively. But, it doesn’t have a robust process to remove short dated stock. So, there is a risk some medicines may not be fit for purpose.
Pharmacy team members monitor the services they provide to make sure they are safe. And, they make changes to help make services safer when neccesary. They dispense medicines into devices to help people remember to take them correctly. But, they do not always provide people with medicines information leaflets. The team takes some steps to identify people taking high-risk medicines. And it provides them with some advice. But the team don’t have any written information for people to take away. So, people may not have correct information they need to help them take their medicines safely.
Principle 5. Equipment and facilities
The pharmacy has the necessary equipment available, which it properly maintains. And it manages and uses the equipment in ways that protect confidentiality.
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 |