GPhC Chief Executive, Duncan Rudkin, told the Pharmacy Business Conference on Sunday that good clinical governance is key to pharmacies providing safe, effective, and good quality services to patients and the public.
It comes after the GPhC conducted a themed review across Great Britain to find out what drives good clinical governance in community pharmacy.
Clinical governance is the system through which healthcare organisations are accountable for continuously improving the quality of their services and safeguarding high standards of care by creating an environment in which clinical excellence will flourish.
The review involved the GPhC analysing common themes from a range of pharmacies around Great Britain that were identified as offering good clinical governance.
Common themes found amongst examples of good practice included:
- an ethos of continuous learning and improvement
- governance, risk assessment, clinical audit, training and development, and oversight of prescribing and clinical services were seen as just as important as dispensing services
- active and effective team meetings and robust clinical oversight and advisory structures.
General Pharmaceutical Council Chief Executive, Duncan Rudkin, said:
“Community pharmacy businesses providing services need to start by creating the culture in which professionals can be professional. This means taking responsibility as business leaders for safety and quality of care, and making sure you have the right quantity of confident staff able to work within their competence.
“Looking after your clinicians, supporting them to live up to their standards, and having systems in place to ensure that they are able to do that in practice: these steps are critical if you are to look after your patients.”