Tesco Instore PharmacyGPhC

Pharmacy context

This is an instore pharmacy within a Tesco supermarket located on the outskirts of Uckfield in East Sussex. The pharmacy dispenses NHS prescriptions, sells over-the-counter medicines and provides health advice to a wide range of people. It dispenses some of its prescriptions in multi-compartment compliance aids for those who may have difficulty managing their medicines. It also offers anti-malarial and erectile dysfunction services and seasonal flu vaccinations.

Standards by principle

• Principle 1 – Governance

  Standards met

  The pharmacy provides its services in a safe and effective manner. Its team members log the mistakes they make, and regularly review them together, so that they can learn from them and act to avoid problems being repeated. People who work in the pharmacy can explain what they do, what they’re responsible for and when they might seek help. They work to professional standards and identify and manage risks appropriately. They understand their role in protecting vulnerable people, and they keep people’s private information safe. The pharmacy keeps the records it needs to, but it doesn’t always follow up discrepancies in those records thoroughly enough. It has appropriate insurance to protect people if things go wrong.

• Principle 2 – Staff

  Standards met

  The pharmacy has enough staff to manage its workload safely, and they work well together as a team. Pharmacy team members are well‐trained and have a good understanding of their roles and responsibilities. They can make suggestions to improve safety and workflows where appropriate.

• Principle 3 – Premises

  Standards met

  The pharmacy’s premises provide a safe, secure and professional environment for people to receive its services. Team members make regular use of their private consultation room for some of the pharmacy’s services and for sensitive conversations

• Principle 4 – Services

  Standards met

  The pharmacy delivers its services in a safe and effective manner, and people with a range of needs can access them. The pharmacy sources, stores and generally manages its medicines safely, and so makes sure that the medicines it supplies are fit for purpose. It responds adequately to drug alerts or product recalls so that people only get medicines or devices which are safe. Team members identify people supplied with high‐risk medicines so that they can be given extra information they may need to take their medicines safely. But they don’t keep appropriate records of most of those checks. This makes it harder for them to show what they have done if a query should arise in future.

• Principle 5 – Equipment

  Standards met

  The pharmacy has the right equipment for the range of services it provides. It maintains and uses most of its facilities and equipment appropriately to keep people’s private information safe. But it is not doing enough to control the use of its team’s NHS smartcards. This would make it difficult for them to be certain which individual team members were using its computers if a query were to arise in future.

Inspection history summary