Empowering you to meet regulatory and best practice requirements

Pharmacy Task and Role Matrix

You will be aware, from previous editions of The Professional Standard, that Boots pharmacies, like other community pharmacies, rely upon relief pharmacists and more locum pharmacists than they have done in the past. An important reference document for all pharmacists, but especially locum and relief pharmacists, is the Pharmacy Task and Role Matrix. This matrix should be reviewed regularly and kept up to date; it should be reviewed and updated when a team member leaves or joins the team or changes role, or when an existing team member has completed new training and is authorised to undertake a particular task. The Pharmacy Task and Role Matrix is available on BootsLive.

Responsible pharmacist record requirements

As part of your set-up conversation with a relief or locum pharmacist that is new to your pharmacy, please help by showing them where the Responsible Pharmacist (RP) Notice should be displayed and where the Responsible Pharmacist (RP) Record Book is kept, as these activities must be undertaken at the beginning of their shift. It is important to note that completion of the RP record and displaying the RP notice are regulatory requirements.

Completion of information governance eLearning

Information Governance eLearning forms part of store team member’s mandatory annual compliance eLearning. It addresses the importance of protecting customer and team member personal and sensitive information. All pharmacy team members must complete this eLearning module when asked to do so. 

Patient Safety Review

One requirement that you will all be aware of is the Patient Safety Review. If any of the areas covered in this article have identified any areas for improvement in the clinical governance of your pharmacy, you may wish to include an action(s) in your monthly Patient Safety Review. The Patient Safety Review template has been updated and now includes information about which roles are responsible for sign-off. A copy of the updated template can be found on BootsLive. 

The introduction of technology in dispensing processes is demonstrating that it can drive safety, both directly though reduction of human error, and indirectly via the introduction of simpler and more efficient operating platforms. From time to time however, things do go wrong and it’s important that these are logged correctly, so that we can swiftly identify and respond to any emerging trends.

During the first few weeks of implementing a new technology, we ask pharmacy teams to embed behaviours and learning whilst under the security of a ‘firewall’ or assurance period. PIERS reporting includes categorisation to help in the identification of incidents linked to technologies such as Defined Duration Clinical Checks (DDCC) and Assisted Due Date Dispensing (ADDD), and the electronic Near Miss Incident Log has recently been updated with similar categories.

Please robustly record your near miss incidents, including any detected under a firewall/assurance period. Please use the digital Near Miss Incident Log if it is available in your store.