Empowering you to meet regulatory and best practice requirements - P1
Empowering you to meet regulatory and best practice requirements
Patient Safety First |
This month’s Patient Safety Champions’ letter focuses on the importance of the required dispensary standards and the positive impact of these on patient safety.
Please use this month’s scenario, which will be led by your Patient Safety Champion, to reflect on the standards in your dispensary and how, by following best practice, you can help promote patient safety. Please share with your Patient Safety Champion any insights or ideas for SMART-ER actions you may have in relation to the dispensary standards to support patient safety in your pharmacy.
IMPORTANT: Adhering to professional standards as part of meeting clinical governance requirements |
Within Boots, we undertake audits to ensure that our pharmacies are operating safely, effectively and that appropriate standards are maintained. This article summarises the areas where inconsistencies were identified during the recent audit. The below actions should act as reminders of the importance of adhering to clinical governance standards, which are essential for the safe and effective running of a Boots pharmacy.
Date-checking
It is essential to follow SOP ODT2 in full, ensuring that you maintain an accurate Dispensary Date-Checking Matrix and up-to-date lists of short-dated medicines.
To aid with the date-checking process, updated versions of both the Dispensary Date-Checking Matrix and the Pharmacy Short Dated Stock Form are available on BootsLive. Note that these documents have recently been updated to help clarify which roles are responsible for signing off this activity.
Remember that it is essential that any date-expired medicines are promptly claimed for and disposed of (as per SOP AD2 and SOP CD7) to avoid any instances of these being inadvertently returned to dispensing stock.
Controlled drugs
Updated Controlled Drug (CD) SOPs are available from 1st November on the digital MyHub platform. Pharmacy teams must ensure that these are completed by 12th December. The release of any new SOPs can be a useful reminder for pharmacy team members to ensure they are up-to-date with all the SOPs they require for their role, particularly for those who have recently joined the team, returned from long-term absence (such as parental leave), or who have changed roles.
It is important to remember that, for date-expired and obsolete Schedule 2 CDs, an Authorised Witness must be arranged to oversee the destruction. Pharmacy teams are responsible for ensuring the timely destruction of all patient-returned and date-expired CDs, including Schedule 2 CDs. When required, a team member must communicate effectively with an Authorised Witness to arrange for the destruction of a date-expired or obsolete Schedule 2 CD item(s) to be witnessed.
In September 2023, pharmacy teams should have received a CD key lanyard. You are reminded that when ‘handing over’ CD keys between Responsible Pharmacists (RPs), the CD Key Log must be updated, e.g. at the start and end of an RP’s shift. A copy of the CD Key Log can be found on BootsLive.
Some pharmacies may have a separate lockable container which has been authorised for use when receiving CD items in the absence of a pharmacist. Team members in these pharmacies must locate the new SOP (CD01A) on MyHub by using the ‘Discover’ functionality, or have it assigned to them at store-level. This SOP specifically covers the activity associated with receiving a CD item in the absence of a pharmacist and must be completed, along with the other CD SOPs on MyHub, by 12th December.
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