Inspection outcome: Standards met
Last inspection: 10/01/2020
Pharmacy context
This pharmacy is closed to the public and its main activity is supplying medicines to residents of care homes. These medicines are supplied against NHS prescriptions. And the pharmacy largely dispenses these medicines into multi-compartment compliance packs. The pharmacy’s team members also provide advice to staff in the care homes about medicines management. And the pharmacy carries out checks at the homes to make sure medicines are being stored correctly. The pharmacy doesn’t sell any over-the-counter medicines or offer any services online at present.
Inspection summary findings
Principle 1. Governance
Overall, the pharmacy identifies and manages the risks associated with its services. Its team members understand their roles and they know when to refer to the pharmacist for advice. The staff also know what they can and cannot do if there is no pharmacist present. The team learns from mistakes and introduces improvements to make the pharmacy’s services safer. The pharmacy team has written procedures to refer to. However, the length of time since the last review of these procedures could increase the chances that they don’t fully reflect current practice. And the pharmacy must make sure it keeps all the records required by law up-to-date.
Principle 2. Staff
The pharmacy’s team members have the right skills and qualifications for their roles. Pharmacy professionals can exercise their professional judgement and act in people’s best interest. And the team works closely together and shares learnings from when things go wrong. This helps to make the pharmacy’s services safer. The staff have opportunities to develop their pharmacy skills. But there is no formal time set aside at work for training. This makes it harder for staff to complete the training courses they are enrolled on.
Principle 3. Premises
The pharmacy premises provide a safe and clean environment for dispensing medicines. The team makes sure the premises are tidy and well-organised, and there is enough space for the volume of prescriptions it dispenses.
Principle 4. Services, including medicines management
The pharmacy’s service focusses on the supply of medicines to care homes. Overall, it does this in an effective way. And it provides additional training and support to staff looking after residents in care homes so they can manage and administer medicines safely. The pharmacy gets its medicines from appropriate sources and it generally stores them correctly. It separates out-of-date medicines from dispensing stock and disposes of waste medicines safely. It doesn’t always keep a record of when it date checks its stocks so it may be harder for the pharmacy staff to be sure that all stock is checked regularly.
Principle 5. Equipment and facilities
The pharmacy has the equipment it needs for the services it provides. It makes sure its equipment is kept clean and 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 |