Interactive map lays bare all 100+ of the UK’s worst-performing chemists – so is YOURS one of them?

Britain’s worst-performing pharmacies are today named and shamed by a forensic MailOnline audit — with an interactive map allowing you to check if yours is one of the offenders.

Our investigation reveals 108 high street chemists were reprimanded for failing to meet basic standards over the past year. 

Ten were subject to enforcement action for breaching strict regulatory guidelines. 

One – Chemipharm, in Birmingham – was said to be ‘unclean and unhygienic’, with its standards not meeting those ‘expected of a healthcare environment’.

Another, Osbon Pharmacy in east London, would ‘regularly’ order ‘unusually large volumes of liquid codeine preparations’.

Your browser does not support iframes.

Chemipharm in Birmingham was found to be ‘unclean and unhygienic’. The regulator noted its standards of cleanliness and maintenance ‘do not meet the standards expected of a healthcare environment’

Osbon Pharmacy in east London is reported to ‘regularly’ order ‘unusually large volumes of liquid codeine preparations’. But it is ‘unclear why these medicines are needed as there is little evidence of them being sold or supplied’, the watchdog said. The pharmacy was also found to be failing to protect patients’ private information sufficiently

But it is ‘unclear why these medicines are needed as there is little evidence of them being sold or supplied’, the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) said. 

The pharmacy was also found to be failing to protect patient’s private information sufficiently. 

MailOnline has flagged all of the offending pharmacies on an interactive map. 

Every pharmacy is also listed in a table below, with its registration number, location and postcode, allowing you to read how they are judged by the regulator on their website. 

It comes after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak last week gave new powers to chemists to prescribe drugs for common ailments under a plan to free up millions of GP appointments. 

The GPhC carries out regular inspections of every pharmacy in the country.

It rates them with one overall outcome — either ‘standards met’ or ‘standards not all met’ — based on five sections.

These are governance, staffing, premises, services and equipment.

All of the standards will need to be met for a pharmacy to receive a standards met outcome. Around 85 per cent of pharmacies meet all the standards when inspected. 

When guidelines are breached, pharmacies are given an action plan ordering them to improve.

Further enforcement action can then be made on chemists who fail to overhaul their services after six months.

This can include imposing conditions on premises dishing out drugs. 

In extreme circumstances, pharmacies can be forced to stop selling prescription-only drugs.

MailOnline’s probe found that close to 150 pharmacies across the UK were ruled to have not met all their standards during the last 12 months. 

Of these, 108 were bricks and mortar chemists. They are marked orange on our map, which can be zoomed in and out.

Many have since overhauled their services, to the satisfaction of the GPhC.   

Eleven of the total — marked red on our map — were subject to enforcement action by the GPhC. 

This total, however, accounts for only 1 per cent of all the 11,000-plus community pharmacies in the UK. 

All inspection reports included in MailOnline’s analysis were published between May 12, 2022 and May 11, 2023. Some of the inspections themselves would have happened before May because of the length of time it can take between inspection and publication of the report.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak last week gave new powers to chemists to prescribe drugs for common ailments under a plan to free up millions of GP appointments. Pictured, Mr Sunak outside his parents’ former pharmacy premises in Southampton

Under the measures unveiled last week, the Government revealed a pharmacy common ailments scheme in England would be launched before the end of 2023. Under the service, patients will be able to get a prescription from their pharmacist for seven minor illnesses including earache and urinary tract infections without having to see their GP first. The pharmacy contraception service that launched last month and existing pharmacy blood pressure services will also be expanded

Gareth Jones, director of corporate affairs at The National Pharmacy Association, told MailOnline: ‘There are over 14,000 pharmacies in the UK, the vast majority of whom provide very high-quality health care services. 

‘As in any other regulated sector, the regulatory system exists to check performance and target the relatively small number that need to improve their service in some way.’

He added: ‘Numerous surveys have found that the public has a positive experience of using pharmacies, and trust in pharmacists and their teams is very high for very good reason.’

A GPhC spokesperson said: ‘Pharmacy inspections are intended to help pharmacies improve their systems and services, the quality of care and the outcomes for patients and the public using their services.

‘Any pharmacy not meeting all of the standards has to complete an improvement action plan.

‘Improvement action plans are published alongside the report our inspections website.’

It comes after the Government last week unveiled its long-awaited GP ‘recovery plan’ that aims to ease pressure on overstretched family doctors — partly by handing new powers to pharmacists.

Policymakers hope the scheme, which will take effect by winter, will free up millions of appointments and end the ‘8am scramble’.

It will enable pharmacists to prescribe drugs for conditions including ear infections, sore throats, sinusitis, shingles and minor urine infections.

The move will be backed by £645million in funding.

MailOnline excluded online-only and hospital-based pharmacies from its analysis. 

GPhC’s concerns around internet-based pharmacies are growing. 

In March its director of insight, intelligence and inspection revealed almost a third of all online pharmacies are failing to meet regulatory standards.

‘Overprescribing’ and a lack of ‘appropriate checks in place’ were mentioned among the list of ‘failures’.

The watchdog also issued a safety alert last summer over concerns that drugs were being dished out by too many online pharmacies without proper oversight. 

The regulator said a ‘disproportionate’ 30 per cent of the fitness-to-practice cases it was investigating concerned internet-based pharmacies.

This was despite these pharmacies accounting for a small fraction of the sector.

Earlier this year, MailOnline also performed an audit on the worst-performing GP surgeries in England. 

• The article has been amended to clarify that the list of pharmacies include those who have had a ‘not all standards met’ inspection outcome within the last 12 months, and that this may not have been their most recent inspection from the General Pharmaceutical Council.