Recent data shows that a number of Nottinghamshire pharmacies have failed to meet all standards in the last 12 months. Similar to how schools have Ofsted inspections, pharmacies are inspected by the General Pharmaceutical Council, which sets the standards pharmacies across the country need to meet.
There are five principles on the inspection, which include governance, staff, premises, services (including medicines and management) as well as equipment and facilities. Pharmacies can be graded as standards not all met, standards met, good practice and excellent practice for each of these categories.
Based on inspections carried out in the last year, five Nottinghamshire pharmacies had an inspection where they did not meet all of the standards expected. This includes Jayplex Dis.Chts on Woodthorpe Road, Nottingham, who did not meet standards in governance or services at their recent inspection on January 18, 2023.
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The report states: "Overall, the pharmacy fails to identify and manage all the risks associated with the provision of its services. Members of the pharmacy team do not have current written procedures to refer to when carrying out their activities to help them make sure these are undertaken appropriately. And the pharmacy does not maintain all the records it needs to provide assurance that the services are run safely."
It goes on to report: "The pharmacy fails to store all its medicines in a manner that is suitable for the risks associated with them. But overall, the pharmacy offers healthcare services which are mainly adequately managed and are accessible to people" Standards were also not met in governance or services at DB Raval Ltd on Eaton Place, Bingham, during its inspection on March 23, 2023.
The report states: "The pharmacy does not adequately manage all risks associated with providing its service as it does not maintain all records it must by law. Team members do not always have access to complete written procedures to help them provide services in a consistent way."
The report also states that "the pharmacy does not store all its medicines as it should" and that it "does not have the sufficient processes to support it in managing waste medicines safely." In the past year, Nabbs Lane Pharmacy in Hucknall, Manns Pharmacy in Mapperley and Medina Chemist in Netherfield have also not met standards during an inspection, but have all since been re-inspected and met all standards.
A spokesperson for Nabbs Lane Pharmacy said: "The reason why the pharmacy didn't meet the standards is because a couple of records were not done on a timely basis, due to staff shortage in this sector and underfunding from the NHS. Since then recruitment has taken place and we have taken more staff on.
"The second inspection is done post 6 months the original so happened recently and we now have all standards met." Community Pharmacy Nottinghamshire is a LPC made up of 13 elected members to represent pharmacy contractors in the county.
Chief Officer of the committee, Nick Hunter, said: "The GPhC inspection report categories are similar to Ofsted for schools and CQC for NHS premises and medical services – so even something relatively minor can result in a “standards not met” grading so whilst the national report looked pretty daunting I’ve not found anything for significant cause for concern. It’s all part of the ongoing governance and monitoring of standards in pharmacies.
"If you consider the number of pharmacies in Nottinghamshire (225) and the number of people using them every day it equates to around one million points of contact a month – most of these are uneventful and many receive excellent service despite the challenging environment for the NHS at the moment. In my role I work closely with the local GPhC inspector and NHSE inspection team as do my counter parts for dentists, opticians and GPs and can assure your readers that any concerns raised are followed up and investigated so in the unlikely event that people have concerns in the first instance they should raise with the organisation directly (Pharmacy, GP Practice, Dentist, Optician).
"If that doesn’t resolve the concern then ask for their complaints procedure which will detail how to escalate including to the NHS inspection teams. People can also contact Healthwatch who will also provide advice."
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