A WIRRAL pharmacy has been found to have "system-wide failures" by an inspector which "present a serious risk to patient safety".

Almost 150 chemists in the UK have been reprimanded for providing sub-standard care over the past year by the General Pharmaceutical Council.

This comes as there has been a greater push by some GPs to have patients go straight to the pharmacy to free up doctors' time.

Oakley Pharmacy, on Telegraph Road in Heswall, was one of the pharmacies that didn't meet the standard required after an inspection on October 11 2023.

The summary findings from the inspection showed that "standards were not met" in the categories Governance, Staff and Services, including medicines management.

Equipment and facilities and Premises were said to have met the standards.

When a pharmacy has not met all standards, they are required to complete an improvement action plan.

The General Pharmaceutical Council progress to check the improvements and inspect again after six months to make sure the pharmacy is maintaining these improvements. A new report will then be published.

What did the report say?

The report said: "The pharmacy does not have appropriate governance arrangements in place.

"It does not keep all of the records that are needed by law. Responsible pharmacist records are incomplete and the pharmacy does not maintain the necessary records for the controlled drugs it obtains and supplies".

It continued: "The pharmacy has enough staff to manage its workload safely. But it is currently operating without a nominated superintendent, which means there is a lack of accountability and leadership for the safe and effective provision of services.​

"The pharmacy has some stock medicines that have been re-packaged and are not adequately labelled. This means it cannot provide assurance that these medicines are fit for purpose and expiry date checks are not always recorded.

"So there may be an increased risk that expired medicines could be supplied".

The enforcement action summary confirmed that "at an inspection of the pharmacy on October 11 2023 the inspector found system-wide failures in the operation of the pharmacy which present a serious risk to patient safety".

It continued: "The risks are heightened by the nature of the products involved, controlled drugs, with inadequate risk management, records and controls in place".

The pharmacy was made to cease all activity (obtaining, sale and supply) of Schedule 2 controlled drugs.

This map shows all of the pharmacies on the list across the UK:

Oakley Pharmacy were contacted for a comment but did not respond.