Supply chain validation, how are you getting on ?

by | Oct 9, 2013 | Blog, Community Pharmacy, Pharmacy Suppliers

How are you getting on validating your supply chain ?  Have you hit  problems ? Our clients have hit many problems along the way and are eagerly awaiting Autumn and peace of mind that their data loggers will not alarm. But January , February and March await us when the  tables turn and the low alarms start to trigger, and  another raft of  data logged journeys await us.

So when you ask people what they have done and how comfortable they  feel about the robust nature of their risk assessments of their supply chain and if it  will pass the next MHRA inspection , many are not one hundred per cent confident.  If we were dealing with ice cream we all know how to pick it from the supermarket freezer pack it on the  top of the carrier bags and place it in the freezer as soon as we get home to prevent it melting. So  why do we struggle with GDP and supply chain validation.

Clients with the same repeat journey have an easy job , log the first 30/50 risk assess the results and decide on a suitable % of deliveries to randomly check. Is this sufficient ?

If they are journeys to varied  high risk areas then we need to verify every single journey , but  what happens if we cannot get our loggers back to analyse the results ? Do we refuse to supply them again until they share the data with us ?

Pharmacists do not accept cold chain deliveries if the bag feels warm ?  Question the delivery …..

I have had all sorts of answers from my clients and they suppliers and customers.

” Nobody else asks for a logger to be put in the delivery !”

” -1 is OK ! ”

” If it costs us £200 to ship every cold chain item we will be bankrupt!”

” It is not a level playing field”

” What is the difference between Validation and Verification ? ”

There is a lot of work to do to ensure we all play  our part in delivery medicines in line with their MA and the instructions on the packaging.

Tell us how you got on, share best practice and lets force the logistics suppliers to be compliant with GDP .

 

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Pharmacy Consulting have provided us with a prompt and professional service, including advice, GDP training and helping us with a robust customised Quality System. During this time they have been committed to fully understanding our company needs and have consistently delivered excellent service. I would highly recommend PCL to any business for peace of mind and sound professional advice.     Ben Funnell Director Universal PS
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