Pharmacy context
The pharmacy is part of a local shopping and community centre complex in Middlesbrough. It changed ownership in November 2023. The pharmacy’s main services include dispensing NHS prescriptions and selling over-the-counter medicines. It provides substance misuse services to people. And it offers people the option to collect their medicines through an automated collection point situated to the side of the premises. The pharmacy offers a medicine delivery service to people.
Inspection summary findings
Principle 1. Governance
The pharmacy does not routinely assess key risks for the services it provides. Pharmacy team members do not always follow the pharmacy's written procedures. And they are not familiar with processes designed to monitor risk and to share learning following mistakes they make during the dispensing process. Pharmacy team members understand how to respond to feedback. They know what steps to take to help keep vulnerable people safe from harm. And they keep people's confidential information secure.
Principle 2. Staff
Pharmacy team members have not received appropriate training on the pharmacy’s processes to support them in delivering its services safely and effectively. Whilst the pharmacy employs enough team members, this lack of learning contributes to workplace pressures. Pharmacy team members understand how they can raise a concern at work, and they are supportive of each other.
Principle 3. Premises
The pharmacy premises are secure and maintained to an adequate standard. They include suitable private consultation spaces. Overall, they provide a suitable environment for providing pharmacy services.
Principle 4. Services, including medicines management
The pharmacy does not have appropriate controls to support its team members in effectively managing its services. Its intermittent internet connectivity is causing a backlog of work which is compromising the safety of its dispensing services. Pharmacy members are not familiar with processes for receiving and responding to medicine safety alerts. So, there is a risk people may receive medicines that are not safe to take. The pharmacy obtains its medicines from reputable suppliers. And it adequately manages the storage of its medicines.
Principle 5. Equipment and facilities
The pharmacy does not have adequate internet facilities. And it does not consider the equipment and resources required to support its contingency plans for providing its services. Its team members act with care by using the pharmacy’s facilities and equipment in a way which protects people’s confidentiality.
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.