Pharmacy context
The pharmacy is in a busy town centre next to a surgery. The pharmacy provides NHS dispensing services and the Discharge Medicines Service to people who have recently been discharged from hospital. It supplies medicines in multi-compartment compliance packs to a small number of people who live in their own homes and need this support. And it provides substance misuse medications to some people.
Inspection summary findings
Principle 1. Governance
Team members are not
familiar with the pharmacy’s written procedures, and there is evidence that
they are not following them. The pharmacy does not regularly review its
procedures, so they may not reflect current best practice. Taken together, this
increases the risk of something going wrong. Team members do not sufficiently
know how to deal with safeguarding concerns, which means that vulnerable people
using the pharmacy’s services are less protected.. However, people using the
pharmacy can provide feedback and raise concerns. And on the whole, the
pharmacy adequately protects people’s personal information. Team members
usually discuss any dispensing mistakes, but they do not record them. This
makes it harder for the pharmacy to review them and identify any patterns or
trends. And means that team members may be missing out on opportunities to
learn and make the pharmacy’s services safer.
Principle 2. Staff
The pharmacy has enough trained team members to provide its services safely. Team members can raise any concerns or make suggestions. They are not always provided with regular ongoing training which could make it harder for them to keep their skills and knowledge up to date.
Principle 3. Premises
The premises provide a safe, secure, and clean environment for the pharmacy's services. People can have a conversation with a team member in a private area.
Principle 4. Services, including medicines management
Team members are not always aware of safety alerts or recalls and the pharmacy does not have a robust system for responding to them. This increases the risk of supplying medicines to people that are unsuitable for use. The pharmacy’s services are easy for people to access and it generally manages its dispensing services well. The pharmacy does not always highlight high-risk medicines so there is a risk people may not always get the right information about their medicine.
Principle 5. Equipment and facilities
The pharmacy has the equipment it needs to provide its services safely. It uses its equipment to help protect people’s personal information.
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 does 'pharmacy has not met all standards' mean?
When a pharmacy has not met all standards, they are required to complete an improvement action plan, which you can find via a link at the top left of this page. We monitor progress to check the improvements are made and inspect again after six months to make sure the pharmacy is maintaining these improvements. A new report will then be published.