Pharmacy support staff must understand the GPhC’s inspection principles, as they could be the ones to answer the inspector’s questions, says NPA head of pharmacy services Leyla Hannbeck

As part of the new General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) inspections, a GPhC inspector can ask any member of the pharmacy support team to explain or demonstrate how they are complying with the principles.

The following sample questions are part of a set that the GPhC inspections team has shared with the NPA:

1. How would you respond to feedback or a complaint from a patient/member of the public? Can you give me an example of such a complaint/feedback and what happened as a result?

To comply with principle one, all processes and services within the pharmacy that pose a potential risk to patients and the public need to be identified, managed and reviewed. Within this principle is the standard that the ‘safety and quality of pharmacy services are regularly reviewed and monitored’. The inspector may wish to ask you this question to check that you are confident in handling and responding to complaints. This involves the following:

• You are aware that a complaints standard operating procedure (SOP) is in place and you know how to deal with complaints
• The complaints procedure is openly available to patients and the public and it is proactively publicised
• When a complaint has been made or feedback has been received, there is evidence that improvements have been made.

2. How do you make sure that patients and the public don’t have access to confidential information (e.g. on computers, prescriptions, delivery records or on other documentation such as MURs)?

Within principle one there is the standard that ‘information is managed to protect the privacy, dignity and confidentiality of patients /public’. To see that you are complying with this, the inspector will want to know that:

• You have a dedicated area for confidential conversations, which is clearly signposted and promoted by staff during conversations with patients, where appropriate
• You have different passwords to access the pharmacy’s computer/s and that they are regularly changed
• Patients are not able to see computer screens
• Procedures are in place to ensure that patient identifiable information is not shared intentionally or unintentionally
• Confidential waste is disposed of correctly
• You are aware of Information Governance procedures.

NPA Members and their teams can access a suite of resources on the GPhC’s inspections regimen, including videos that cover each of the five principles, evidence you need to show and practical scenarios. To access this, visit: npa.co.uk/gphc-inspection.