Inspection outcome: Standards met
Last inspection: 15/06/2021
Pharmacy context
The pharmacy is in a largely residential area on a main road near Gillingham high street. The people who use the pharmacy are mainly older people. The pharmacy receives around 85% of its prescriptions electronically. It provides a range of services including the New Medicine Service. And it also provides medicines as part of the Community Pharmacist Consultation Service. The pharmacy supplies medications in multi-compartment compliance packs to a large number of people who live in their own homes to help them manage their medicines. And it provides substance misuse medications to a small number of people. The inspection was carried out during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Inspection summary findings
Principle 1. Governance
The pharmacy adequately identifies and manages the risks associated with its services to help provide them safely. It learns from mistakes that happen during the dispensing process to help make its services safer. And it protects people’s personal information. Team members understand their role in protecting vulnerable people. And people are able to provide feedback about the pharmacy’s services. The pharmacy largely keeps the records it needs to keep by law, to show that its medicines are supplied safely and legally.
Principle 2. Staff
The pharmacy has enough trained team members to provide its services safely. They do the right training for their roles and they are provided with some training to support their learning needs and maintain their knowledge and skills. They feel able to raise any concerns or make suggestions about the pharmacy or its services. And team members can take professional decisions to ensure people taking medicines are safe.
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 without being heard.
Principle 4. Services, including medicines management
The pharmacy provides its services safely and manages them well. It gets its medicines from reputable suppliers and stores them properly. It responds appropriately to drug alerts and product recalls, so that people get medicines and medical devices that are safe to use. It dispenses medicines into multi-compartment compliance packs safely. But it doesn't always highlight prescriptions for higher-risk medicines. And this may mean that it misses opportunities to speak with people when they collect these medicines.
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 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 |