Pharmacy context
This community pharmacy is located within a parade of shops in the town of Harlow. It provides a variety of services including dispensing of NHS prescriptions, the New Medicine Service (NMS) and the Pharmacy First service through patient group directions (PGDs). It also provides medicines in multi compartment compliance packs for people who have difficulty remembering to take their medicines.
Inspection summary findings
Principle 1. Governance
The pharmacy does not ensure that its standard operating procedures are available, and some team members have not read them. However, it has appropriate insurance arrangements in place. People can provide feedback or make complaints about the pharmacy’s services. And team members protect people’s personal information. The pharmacy largely keeps the records it needs to by law.
Principle 2. Staff
The pharmacy does not ensure that all team members are enrolled on the appropriate training courses within the appropriate timeframe. However, it has enough team members to manage its workload. And team members have some ongoing training in the pharmacy to keep their knowledge and skills up to date. Team members feel comfortable about raising any concerns they have.
Principle 3. Premises
Parts of the pharmacy have suffered from water damage and damp and require maintenance. The damage has led to the consultation room not being used, which could limit the facilities the pharmacy has for people to have a conversation with a team member in private. And some parts of the pharmacy have been affected by water leakage and damp. However, the pharmacy is kept secure from unauthorised access
Principle 4. Services, including medicines management
The pharmacy cannot sufficiently demonstrate that it stores medicines requiring cold storage at the appropriate temperatures. However, it gets its medicines from reputable sources and largely stores its other medicines appropriately. And the team generally takes the right action in response to safety alerts to help ensure that people get medicines which are fit for purpose.
Principle 5. Equipment and facilities
The pharmacy generally has the appropriate equipment to provide its services safely. And it protects people’s privacy when using its equipment.
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.