Home delivery company improves after GPhC warnings
Healthcare at Home has eliminated its backlog of complaints after two GPhC inspections identified issues with late deliveries
A medicines home delivery company that was reprimanded twice by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) for late deliveries has made “good progress” in improving its service to patients, the regulator has found.
The GPhC first inspected Healthcare at Home in April, when it found the company was “insufficiently prepared” to deal with an increased number of patients, leaving customers "confused and uncertain" about why their complaints were not being dealt with. A follow-up inspection in August revealed that it still had a “considerable amount of work” to do to address unresolved complaints about missed deliveries, the GPhC said at the time, and it made 10 recommendations for the company to improve its service.
The GPhC said on Tuesday (December 9) that a third inspection had found that Healthcare at Home, which cares for more than 150,000 people across the UK, had since "eliminated" its backlog of complaints and improved its delivery performance. The regulator had introduced three new recommendations to ensure late deliveries were properly documented and investigated, it said.
The GPhC's 10 recommendations
Of the 10 recommendations the GPhC made after its second inspection in August, Healthcare at Home had completed two, made “very good” progress on three and “good” progress on four, the regulator said this week. The company was still trying to reintroduce cancelled services that the GPhC had identified in its tenth recommendation, it found.
Healthcare at Home had revamped its complaints-handling process with the help of extra staff, and was analysing past complaints to try to learn from its mistakes, the GPhC said on its website.
The regulator set out three new recommendations for the company to “strengthen controls” on late deliveries, including the need to inform patients about changes to their delivery time or date and to ensure the company recorded and investigated reasons for late deliveries.
The GPhC said it would continue to monitor the company’s progress and take "any steps necessary to safeguard patients”.
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