A REPORT shows that standards are "not all being met" at a town centre pharmacy, which "cannot show how it is managing to provide services safely".

Inspected by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPC) on August 23, 2023, the Millennium Pharmacy on Shaw Street in St Helens town centre was found to have not met all of the standards required for registered pharmacies.

Inspectors noted that there were failures with the pharmacy's written procedures, risk assessments, electronic prescriptions, and medicine packaging.

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Procedures 'do not reflect current practice'

Although the Millennium Pharmacy was noted to have written procedures to help the team work effectively, inspectors said that these "do not reflect current practice and do not cover all of the services provided".

The consequence of this means that members of the team "may not always fully understand what is expected of them".

The pharmacy also did not have written risk assessments for the private services it provided, so "cannot show how it is managing risks to provide its services safely".

As an example, inspectors found that staff did not ask private aesthetic practitioners to provide proof of professional identity insurance to ensure that their clients will be appropriately protected, nor did they routinely check the prescriber's registration or record when checks were made.

Standing operating procedures for NHS services were in place but had not been reviewed since 2019, the report states.

Members of the team were found to record things that went wrong so they could learn from them, but these records were not reviewed so opportunities were missed to improve.

Some prescriptions 'not legally valid'

Inspectors also found that the Millennium Pharmacy sometimes supplied medicines against electronic prescriptions that were "not correctly signed and therefore not legally valid".

It also did not always obtain enough information to be sure that the aesthetic medicines it supplies are being used safely, and stock checks were not always recorded so it was unclear if and when checks had taken place.

Medicines are obtained from recognised sources and stored appropriately, with regular checks to ensure they are in good condition.

The team also uses special packaging when it delivers medicines that need cold storage, but the packaging is not always tested, so it "may not be effective".

Staff are 'appropriately trained'

Despite the failures highlighted in the GPC report, inspectors did note that the staff are "appropriately trained for the work that they do", with some additional training also undertaken to keep knowledge up to date.

The pharmacy premises was also reported to be "clean and tidy and suitable for the services provided", with staff all having access to the equipment they require to ensure stock is safe to use.

Inspectors state that an improvement action plan must be carried out to correct the recorded failures.

Failings 'did not affect standard of patient care'

Stuart Ellis, Director of Millennium Pharmacy said: "I can confirm we are taking steps to address the points raised in our most recent inspection.

"None of the issues identified by the inspector affected the standard of patient care we have given and continue to give.

"We pride ourselves on being safe and reliable and our patients can have every confidence in the pharmacy and its hard-working staff.