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GPhC inspection preparation

Helping community pharmacies prepare for GPhC inspection — attending your pharmacy to conduct a pre-inspection assessment against the GPhC standards in force from January 2025.

In summary: The GPhC introduced a new focused inspection model in January 2025, concentrating on 18 core standards most critical to patient safety. Inspections remain unannounced. TI Pharmacy Consultancy attends your pharmacy to conduct a pre-inspection assessment against the GPhC standards, identifies compliance gaps and prepares you for inspection — for both the focused and full inspection models. This service is available to pharmacies in England and Wales.

The GPhC inspection framework — what has changed

GPhC inspections assess whether a pharmacy meets the Standards for Registered Pharmacies, which are organised around five principles: governance, staffing, premises, services and equipment. Prior to January 2025, inspections attempted to assess all aspects of pharmacy operation in a single visit.

The focused inspection model introduced in January 2025 concentrates inspector attention on 18 core standards identified as most frequently unmet and most critical to patient safety. Focused inspections are shorter and more targeted. Inspectors can switch to a full inspection at any point if they consider a more comprehensive review is necessary. First inspections are always full inspections.

The 2026 inspection framework places significantly greater emphasis on learning culture — inspectors now expect evidence of reflective practice, open discussion of incidents and demonstrable learning from near misses and errors. This is a shift from documentation-focused compliance to behavioural and cultural evidence.

What TI Pharmacy Consultancy does

  • Pre-inspection review of your pharmacy’s compliance position against the GPhC standards
  • Review of premises standards — consultation room, storage, security, cleaning and patient privacy
  • Review of governance evidence — incident records, near miss logs, significant event analysis, audit trails
  • Staff awareness — advising on how the whole team can be prepared for inspector questions
  • Gap identification and prioritisation — focusing your preparation on the highest-risk areas
  • Post-inspection support — improvement action plan preparation and support through re-inspection

The five GPhC principles

Principle 1 — Governance: SOPs, risk management, complaints, incident reporting, confidentiality, responsible pharmacist records, near miss logs and safeguarding arrangements.

Principle 2 — Staffing: Adequate staffing levels, training, competence assessment, a culture of openness and clear whistleblowing policies.

Principle 3 — Premises: Clean, secure, compliant premises with adequate consultation facilities, appropriate storage and patient privacy.

Principle 4 — Services: Safe dispensing processes, clinical governance for advanced services, appropriate patient group directions and clinical records.

Principle 5 — Equipment and facilities: Appropriate, maintained, calibrated equipment for the services provided.

England and Wales

GPhC regulation applies to all registered pharmacies in England, Wales and Scotland. The same GPhC standards apply in England and Wales — there is no separate Welsh inspection framework. TI Pharmacy Consultancy provides GPhC inspection preparation for pharmacies across both England and Wales.

Is your pharmacy inspection-ready?

Contact TI Pharmacy Consultancy for a free initial discussion about your pharmacy’s current compliance position and how we can help you prepare for your next GPhC inspection.

Free initial discussion

Frequently asked questions

From January 2025, the GPhC introduced a focused inspection model that concentrates inspector attention on 18 core standards identified as most critical to patient safety and professional practice. Focused inspections are shorter than the previous full inspections and can be used for routine inspections and re-inspections. Inspectors retain the flexibility to switch to a full inspection if necessary. Any pharmacy being inspected for the first time will automatically receive a full inspection. TI Pharmacy Consultancy helps pharmacies prepare for both focused and full inspections.

GPhC inspections are unannounced as a general rule. This means pharmacies should be inspection-ready at all times, not just when they have advance warning of a visit. The GPhC uses a risk-based approach to decide when to inspect — pharmacies with previous non-compliance, intelligence-led concerns or specific risk factors may be inspected more frequently. TI Pharmacy Consultancy helps pharmacies build ongoing compliance into daily operations rather than preparing only when an inspection is imminent.

The 18 core standards assessed in a focused inspection are drawn from the GPhC's five principles: governance, staffing, premises, services and equipment/facilities. They cover the standards identified as most frequently unmet and those with the greatest impact on patient safety. Standards 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.5, 1.6, 1.7, 1.8, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3.1, 3.2, 3.4, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4 and 5.1 are included. TI Pharmacy Consultancy reviews evidence against all 18 core standards as part of inspection preparation.

If a pharmacy receives a 'standards not all met' outcome, it must complete an improvement action plan setting out the steps it will take to address the areas of non-compliance. The GPhC monitors progress and re-inspects after six months to check improvements have been made. In serious cases, the GPhC can place conditions on the pharmacy's registration or suspend operations. TI Pharmacy Consultancy advises pharmacies facing an improvement action plan and supports them through the re-inspection process.

The GPhC expects SOPs to be current, version-controlled, accessible to all staff and reviewed at least annually — or more frequently where processes change or new services are introduced. SOPs must reflect how the pharmacy actually operates, not an aspirational standard. Inspectors cross-reference SOPs with what they observe on the day. As part of our pre-inspection assessment, TI Pharmacy Consultancy identifies where SOP gaps or out-of-date procedures may present a risk at inspection, so that you can address them before the inspector visits.