Pharmacy context
The pharmacy is situated in
the High Street of the Old Town. It dispenses NHS and private prescriptions to
people in the local community and it has a travel clinic. Several people have
prescriptions dispensed which are issued by the drug and alcohol team. The
pharmacy offers a prescription delivery service to the surrounding villages, as
well as the town. It also supplies medicines in multi-compartment compliance
packs to people who need this support. There are plans to provide cosmetic
services as well but this has yet to be advertised. Enforcement action has been taken against this pharmacy, which remains in force at the time of this inspection, and there are restrictions on the provision of some services. The enforcement action taken allows the pharmacy to continue providing other services, which are not affected by the restrictions imposed.
Inspection summary findings
Principle 1. Governance
Members of the pharmacy team work to professional standards and identify and generally manage risks effectively. They are clear about their roles and responsibilities. The pharmacy keeps its records up to date. It manages and protects information well and it tells people how their private information will be used. The team members also understand how they can help to protect the welfare of vulnerable people. They log some mistakes they make during the pharmacy processes. They try to learn from these to avoid problems being repeated but there is no formal record of this learning.
Principle 2. Staff
The pharmacy has enough staff to provide safe services for local people. The staff have finished or are completing accredited training for the roles they undertake. The pharmacy does not have a formal approach to monitoring its team members development and it does not provide any training to staff beyond the required accredited training. So, it may not always be able to identify and resolve any knowledge gaps or other learning needs that its staff may have.
Principle 3. Premises
The premises are acceptably clean and generally provide a safe, secure and professional environment for people to receive healthcare. Fire-exits should always be kept unlocked when the building is occupied.
Principle 4. Services, including medicines management
The pharmacy’s working practices are generally safe and effective, and it gets its medicines from reputable sources. But patients receiving higher-risk medicines such as warfarin and valproates may not get all the support and information they need to take their medicines in the best way. And because the pharmacy doesn’t highlight all prescriptions which are only valid for 28 days, there is an increased chance of medicines being given out when the prescription is no longer valid.
Principle 5. Equipment and facilities
The pharmacy generally has the right equipment for its services. It makes sure its equipment is safe to use.
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 |