GPhC Inspections: Common trends 6 months into 2022, this blog takes a look at the common trends identified from inspections carried out this year.
The data has been taken from the published inspection reports from the GPhC website.
A detailed explanation of each principle is available on the GPhC website.
Common trends of Principle 1, Governance:
- Failure to identify and manage all the risks associated with delivering its services
- Standard Operating Procedures are not readily available, are out of date or have not been reviewed
- Staff members fail to follow their Standard Operating Procedures or operating outside of their scope for example not adhering to the rules when a pharmacist is not present.
- Staff members are not trained in the Standard Operating Procedures or are operating outside the scope of their training
- Records required by law, such as responsible pharmacist register, CD register, are not maintained accurately
- Failure to adequately monitor and review the safety and quality of its services. Failure to have sufficient arrangements in place to learn when things go wrong. Failure to review dispensing errors and near miss errors so the team miss learning opportunities to improve patient safety
- Failure to record incidents and near misses
- No safeguarding measures in place or failure to understand the role the staff members play in relation to protecting the vulnerable or children
- Poor controlled drug management
- Poor data protection measures and failures to protect patient’s confidentiality
Common trends of Principle 2, Staff:
- The pharmacy does not have enough suitably qualified and skilled staff to provide its services safely and effectively
- Staff members unable to provide feedback or raise concerns
- Management has failed to take appropriate action when safety concerns about the pharmacy are raised by staff members
- Management has failed to support team members with their training requirements. So they do not have the skills or competence, for their roles and the tasks they carry out
- Failure to enrol its staff on the appropriate training courses within the required time periods.
- Lack of evidence of training in relation to company Standard Operating Procedures
- Team members operating outside their scope of practice
- Non-trained team members operating autonomously
- Team members carrying out tasks they are not qualified or trained to do so
Common trends of Principle 3, premises:
- The pharmacy’s services are not currently being provided in an environment that is appropriate for the provision of healthcare
- Untidy and/or not clean
- Workspaces are not kept clear enough to safely work on
- Trip hazards in the dispensary
- The premises are not maintained to an appropriate level of hygiene such as unclean toilets, lack of handwashing facilities or lack of hot and cold running water
- Fire exits obstructed
- The website is not kept up to date
- Online prescribing: Websites are arranged so that a person can choose a prescription only medicine before there has been an appropriate consultation with a prescriber resulting in the potential of patient selecting a medicine inappropriate for their needs
Common trends of Principle 4, services:
- Failure to have adequately robust processes for managing the storage of medicines, including cold chain products
- Poor stock control and date checking processes resulting in out-of-date and inappropriately stored medicines on the shelves
- Failure to store all its medicines in accordance with safe custody requirements
- Failure to demonstrate that medicines requiring refrigeration have been stored at the appropriate temperatures
- Records of fridge temperatures to show stock is stored correctly and fit for purpose have not been maintained
- Failure to ensure dispensed medicines are labelled appropriately
- Poor returns management
- There is no robust system to appropriately deal with safety alerts such as drug recalls
- Supplies large quantities of medicines which are liable to abuse or misuse or require ongoing monitoring, without obtaining sufficient information or making enough checks to make sure they are suitable for the person concerned.
- Online prescribing: cannot provide assurance that the online prescribing service proactively shares all relevant information about prescriptions with other health professionals involved in the care of the person.
Common trends of Principle 5, equipment and facilities:
- Refreshment areas for staff members inappropriate
- No PAT testing of electronic equipment
- Measuring liquid equipment not fit for purpose
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