Hilltops PharmacyGPhC

Pharmacy context

This is a community pharmacy located within a health centre in Great Holm, Milton Keynes. The pharmacy is open five days a week and on alternate Saturdays. It sells a range of over-the-counter medicines and dispenses NHS and private prescriptions. And it also supplies medicines in multi-compartment compliance packs to a number of people living at home.

Standards by principle

• Principle 1 – Governance

  Standards met

  The pharmacy is generally managing the risks associated​ with its services. It maintains all its records required by law. Its team members understand how they can help to protect vulnerable people.  And it has procedures in place to ensure people's private information is protected. But, the pharmacy's written procedures have not been recently reviewed and they do not set out clearly the roles and responsibilities of its team members. This may mean that team members are not always sure about their role or how to undertake tasks safely. ​

• Principle 2 – Staff

  Standards met

  Members of the pharmacy team have the appropriate skills and qualifications for their roles. And they are supportive of each other and work well together. But on the day of the inspection, members of the pharmacy team were struggling to cope with their workload and to locate people's prescriptions efficiently. The pharmacy’s staffing profile appears to have no capacity to cope with any further increase in the workload or to manage any unplanned absences. This could affect the pharmacy's ability to operate effectively at all times.

• Principle 3 – Premises

  Standards met

  The pharmacy's premises are secure and adequate for the services it provides.

• Principle 4 – Services

  Standards met

  The pharmacy generally provides its services safely and effectively. Its team members are helpful and give appropriate advice to people. But its system for storing and retrieving people's prescriptions awaiting collection could be improved.​ The pharmacy obtains its medicines from reputable sources and stores them safely. But the pharmacy has not maintained recent records of the actions it has taken in response to safety recalls. So, it may not always be able to demonstrate that it takes the right actions to protect people’s health and wellbeing.

• Principle 5 – Equipment

  Standards met

  The pharmacy has the equipment and facilities it needs to provide its services safely.

Inspection history summary