Mr Bennett was "proud" and "gratified" that his staff had received the "official recognition that they deserve" from the regulator, he added.

Community pharmacist Nick Carney said Mr Bennett's business had a "long-standing reputation as an excellent pharmacy in Sheffield", but the fact that just one pharmacy had met the ‘excellent' criteria "only serves to emphasise the failings of the GPhC ratings".

Fellow community pharmacist Siraj Mohammed said the single ‘excellent' rating should be a "wake-up call" to the GPhC that its inspection process was "flawed, unfair and not fit for purpose".

A locum pharmacist posting on the C+D website as Mr C said he had his doubts about the inspection criteria and whether they related to "customer safety and satisfaction". However, he added that Wicker Pharmacy "looks good" and it was "no doubt well run".

Wicker Pharmacy factfile

● The pharmacy opened in 1952 after a consortium of 45 independent pharmacists in Sheffield joined together to provide an out-of-hours service

● It employs 72 staff with a wide range of expertise and qualifications, including 10 pharmacists

● As well as a robotic dispensing system, the pharmacy offers a range of services including medicines deliveries, advice to care homes, sexual health and smoking cessation services, a needle exchange and travel advice

● Wicker Pharmacy is in the process of transferring ownership of the company to its staff. Mr Bennett said employee ownership would "help ensure that the people of Sheffield continue to receive an ‘excellent' service" from the pharmacy  

Superintendent Uday Thakrar said Wicker Pharmacy's success gave him "some comfort" that the ‘excellent' rating was achievable, while community pharmacist Mohammed Shabir said the fact that only an independent pharmacy had been deemed "excellent" was a sign the multiples needed to "get their act together".

In response to readers' concerns, GPhC chief executive Duncan Rudkin said that the new inspection model was a "positive leap forward" for pharmacists and a "helpful reality check on what matters to patients".

"These [ratings] are intended to be confidential and for use by the pharmacies themselves. We have been very open that we are constantly reviewing evidence from inspections and the ratings will be subject to consultation in due course," he added.

Every pharmacy inspected by the GPhC is given a rating of either ‘poor', ‘satisfactory', ‘good' or ‘excellent'. Last month, the GPhC set out further principles for its definition of ‘excellent', following concerns over a lack of clarity in the criteria.

The regulator also promised to make its inspections shorter and give pharmacies more time to respond to its reports.

8 steps to excellent

1 Performing well against the GPhC's pharmacy standards

2 Providing services that are well designed and delivered with patients at their core

3 Improving outcomes for individual patients

4 Optimising patients' use of medicines and reducing waste

5 Looking outside the walls of the pharmacy to understand and meet the health needs of the local community

6 Working in partnership with other healthcare providers and community groups

7 Continually identifying ways of improving patient safety

8 Being a model for other pharmacies to learn from

Source: The eight guiding principles for an excellent pharmacy, GPhC