The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 276 No 7384 p87
21 January 2006

Society summary

Society guidance on pharmacy visits from external monitoring bodies

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society has produced guidance to assist pharmacists whose pharmacies are visited by representatives of external monitoring bodies

The new pharmacy services regulations in England and Wales allow various local and national bodies to arrange monitoring visits to any pharmacy that holds an NHS contract. Local bodies include primary care organisations (primary care trusts in England and local health boards in Wales), patient organisations (patients’ forums in England and community health councils in Wales) and some local authority bodies (such as local authority overview and security committees in England).

Two national bodies — the Healthcare Commission (England) and Health Inspectorate Wales — can arrange visits to pharmacies as part of their monitoring of standards within primary care organisations.

The Society believes that the guidance may also be useful for pharmacists when faced by other persons with powers of entry, such as police chemist inspection officers, customs and excise officers, trading standards officers and NHS counter-fraud services staff. The guidance for pharmacists in England is published in The Journal this week as a tear-out leaf (pp89-90). The guidance for Wales will be published next week. Both sets of guidance include a panel setting out 10 “top tips” for quick reference. Guidance for Scotland will be published in due course if the yet-to-be-launched new contract for Scotland makes it necessary.