Inspection outcome: Standards met
Last inspection: 06/03/2020
Pharmacy context
The pharmacy is located on a busy high street in a town centre in a largely residential area. The pharmacy receives around 80% of its prescriptions electronically. The pharmacy provides a range of services, including Medicines Use Reviews and the New Medicine Service. It supplies medications in multi-compartment compliance packs to some 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.
Inspection summary findings
Principle 1. Governance
Overall, the pharmacy adequately identifies and manages the risks associated with its services to help provide them safely. It largely protects people’s personal information and people can provide feedback about the pharmacy. It largely keeps the records it needs to keep by law, to show that its medicines are supplied safely and legally. And team members understand their role in protecting vulnerable people. But the pharmacy doesn’t always record mistakes that happen during the dispensing process. And this could mean that team members are missing out on opportunities to learn and improve the pharmacy’s services.
Principle 2. Staff
The pharmacy has enough team members to provide its services safely. Team members are comfortable about raising concerns to do with the pharmacy or other issues affecting people’s safety. This means that they can help improve the systems in the pharmacy. The team members can take professional decisions to ensure people taking medicines are safe. But the pharmacy does not always ensure that team members are enrolled on approved pharmacy courses within the required time frame. This could mean that they do not have all the skills and knowledge they need to undertake their tasks safely.
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. But the pharmacy could do more to keep some areas tidy and free from clutter.
Principle 4. Services, including medicines management
Overall, the pharmacy provides its services safely. The pharmacy gets its medicines from reputable suppliers and largely stores them properly. It responds appropriately to drug alerts and product recalls. People with a range of needs can access the pharmacy’s services. But the pharmacy 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. The pharmacy does not regularly remove uncollected medicines from its shelves. And this could increase the chance of these being handed out when the prescription was no longer valid.
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 |