Inspection outcome: Standards met
Last inspection: 19/02/2020
Pharmacy context
This pharmacy is in the middle of the village, close to a satellite surgery. The pharmacy owner provides most of the pharmacist cover and all support staff are part-time. Its core activity is NHS dispensing and most of the prescriptions it dispenses are delivered to people. The pharmacy also offers Medicines Use Reviews (MURs) and New Medicine Service (NMS) consultations. It has a well-subscribed service supplying medicines in multi-compartment compliance packs to people who need help managing their medicines. And it also dispenses prescriptions for residents of some care homes. The pharmacist provides seasonal flu vaccinations under patient group directions (PGDs) and has started a travel vaccination service in recent months.
Inspection summary findings
Principle 1. Governance
Overall, the pharmacy identifies and manages risks to protect people’s safety. Its team members understand their roles and responsibilities. They generally keep people’s personal information safe. They seek people’s feedback about the services they offer. And they try to learn from their mistakes to improve their services. The pharmacy largely keeps the records it needs to by law. But some records are not complete, and others are not easy to read. This may make it harder to rely on these records in the event of a future query.
Principle 2. Staff
The pharmacy has just about enough staff to manage its workload safely. Its staff have completed or are undertaking the required accredited training for their roles. They work closely together with each other and with the pharmacist, and they understand their roles well. However, the lack of a formal approach to ongoing training may make it harder for the pharmacy’s staff to keep their skills and knowledge up to date.
Principle 3. Premises
The pharmacy’s premises are very small compared to the dispensing workload, but they are adequate for the services it provides. It has shown some improvement in its cleaning routines since the last inspection. But it could still do more to make sure all areas of the pharmacy are kept suitably clean and tidy.
Principle 4. Services, including medicines management
Overall, the pharmacy provides its services in a safe manner. It considers the overall workload when deciding when it is safe to provide additional services such as travel vaccinations. Its team members know their customers well. The pharmacy gets its medicines from reliable sources. And it generally stores them appropriately to reduce the risk of mistakes.
Principle 5. Equipment and facilities
The pharmacy has the equipment it needs to provide its services. The pharmacist makes sure he has the right equipment and emergency medicines to hand to provide travel vaccinations safely.
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 |