Key Summary
- The framework provides examples that may be identified during an inspection, which may demonstrate four outcomes: standards not met, standards met, areas for improvement and good practice.
- If a pharmacy has not met any standard, it would be given a rating ‘standards not all met’.
- When arriving at a judgement, the inspector should consider the impact and scale of the weaknesses or areas for improvement identified.
The GPhC has updated its inspection decision-making framework, which inspectors can use while inspecting registered pharmacies.
The regulator said the inspectors should use the framework as a guide, and not as a checklist.
This document now incorporates information from the Findings Framework and the Inspection Practice Note on Minor Non-Compliance documents, both of which have now been withdrawn.
The framework provides examples that may be identified during an inspection, which may demonstrate four different types of outcome: standards not met, standards met, areas for improvement and good practice.
If a pharmacy has not met any standard, it would be given a rating ‘standards not all met’.
The GPhC observed that pharmacies should meet all the standards every day, and not just during an inspection.
When arriving at a judgement, the inspector should consider the impact and scale of the weaknesses or areas for improvement identified.
"The greater the impact on patient safety, the more likely it is that the standard will not be met," the framework stated.
Areas for improvement will be included in the inspection report, so that pharmacies can act on them to improve.
"This framework cannot substitute for the professional judgement of inspectors and their managers, and the context of each pharmacy will be different."
The regulator said, "We are open and transparent about our approach to assessing compliance, clear about what we expect, and how we approach cases where registered pharmacies are not meeting our standards."
The GPhC said its inspection activities are open to public scrutiny.
"Pharmacy owners have the opportunity to highlight any factual inaccuracies in draft inspection reports and can request a review of the overall judgement where not all standards are met."
They are also free to make a complaint about the service they have received via the GPhC’s formal complaints procedures.
