Avon Valley PCN Pharmacy Technician

NHS; Fordingbridge; On-site; GBP 25,000 - 35,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a proactive and supportive Pharmacy team at NHS Avon Valley PCN as a Pharmacy Technician. This full-time role involves running clinics, conducting medicine reviews, and working closely with healthcare professionals to enhance patient care. Enjoy a flexible working environment with opportunities for professional development and peer support.

Qualifications

• Experience working in primary care as a Pharmacy Technician.
• Good clinical pharmacy knowledge of drugs and basic clinical therapeutics.
• Evidence of continued professional development.

Responsibilities

• Run CVD primary prevention clinics and conduct medicines safety searches.
• Carry out DOAC dose checks and provide patient support for effective medicines use.
• Lead on medicines optimisation tasks and collaborate with multidisciplinary teams.

Skills

Communication

Organisational Skills

Attention to Detail

Education

Professional registration with GPhC

Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education primary care Pharmacy Education Pathway (PCPEP) qualification

Tools

Microsoft 365

SystmOne

Job description

Opportunity to join a small team ofexperienced & enthusiastic pharmacists & technicians

Full time 38 hoursper week. Part time considered. Flexible working can be adapted to yourneeds.

You will be fully supported with acomprehensive induction, work closely with our highly experienced pharmacytechnician, who can provide peer support and development in role.

Fantastic opportunity fora qualified Pharmacy Technician to join our established Pharmacy team at AvonValley PCN. A supportive, proactive and forward thinking Pharmacy team,with an excellent clinical lead & great working relationships with all 4practices.

Primary Care Networks (PCNs) are a fundamental part of the NHSLong-Term Plan, bringing GP practices together to enhance workforce recruitmentand retention; manage financial & operational challenges; expand services forpatients; and integrate more effectively with the broader healthcare system.

AvonValley PCN is an innovative,friendly group of practices situated in the New Forest, andencompasses four practices; Fordingbridge Surgery, Ringwood Medical Centre,Cornerways Medical Centre (Ringwood) and Twin Oaks Surgery (Burley andBransgore), serving over 40,000 patients.

Wehave successfully built a wider healthcare team to support the traditional workof the GP practice - Pharmacy Team; First Contact Practitioners(Musculoskeletal); Social Prescribers; Paramedics (Home Visiting Service); CareCoordinators; Care Navigators and a Mental Health Team.

Main duties of the job

Pharmacy technicians play animportant role, complementing clinical pharmacists and other members of the PCNmulti-disciplinary team and use their logistical expertise to ensure safe,effective and efficient use of medicines.

We are seeking a pharmacy technician preferably withprevious experience of working in primary care who is keen to work at the topof their clinical ability. This will involve a variety of work includingrunning CVD prevention clinics, answering Medicines Information type queries,conducting DOAC checks with patients, leading on safety searches and carryingout meds reviews across the PCN. As we are a small team you will also haveopportunities to influence the projects you get involved with, depending onyour skills and experiences.

Our Pharmacy technicians and pharmacists are well supportedby our Pharmacy Administrative Assistant, allowing them to focus on developingtheir role as clinical professionals.

About us

Our friendly PCN pharmacy team has been developing and expandingover the last 4 years. We now have three pharmacists, one technician and oneadministrator, as well as two pharmacists who are employed through a thirdparty, who do all our medicines reconciliation from discharge and clinicletters. Our administrator leads on all of the High Risk Drug monitoring andrecalls across the PCN, and coordinates and books patients in for our CVDprevention clinics and SMRs. The team meet fortnightly to catch up, supporteach other and discuss workload and the team have regular whole PCN teammeetings and socials.

The Pharmacy Team work from a central hub at RingwoodMedical Centre, and conduct most of the work from there, although occasionaltravel to other sites may be needed.

Job responsibilities

Run your own CVD primary preventionclinic to discuss lifestyle interventions and the option of starting a statin,as part of a piece of work conducted by the pharmacy team

Lead on prioritising and conductingmedicines safety searches across the year to identify patients who would mostbenefit from intervention and discussions with the pharmacy team.

Carry out DOAC dose checks as partof the wider pharmacy team workload and have discussions with patients whenappropriate about why we may need to change their doses.

Undertake patient facing and patientsupporting roles to ensure effective medicines use, through shareddecision-making conversations with patients. i.e., synchronisation, adherence,ability to take medicines, follow up of basic observations (e.g. blood pressure)

Carry out medicine optimisationtasks including effective medicine administration (e.g. checking inhalertechnique), supporting medication reviews, medicines reconciliation,implementing efficient ordering and return processes, and reducing wastage.Utilise consultation skills to work in partnership with patients and carers toensure they use their medicines effectively.

Provide expertise to address boththe public health and social care needs of patients, including lifestyleadvice, service information, and help in tackling local health inequalities.

Takepart in the pharmacy team central rota to answers relevant medicine-relatedenquiries from GPs, other practice staff, other healthcare teams (e.g.community pharmacy) and patients.

Suggestand recommend solutions using clinical knowledge and trusted pharmaceuticalsources, referring to pharmacists as required.

Carryout occasional medication reviews and reconciliation for new care homepatients.

Provide leadership for medicinesoptimisation systems across the PCN, supporting practices with a range ofservices to get the best value from medicines

Supportinitiatives for antimicrobial stewardship to reduce inappropriate antibioticprescribing locally.

Supportthe Pharmacy administrator in her role in managing blood monitoring ofHigh-Risk Drugs and DOACs across the PCN.

Provide specialist expertise in theuse of medicines whilst helping to address both the public health and socialcare needs of patients including lifestyle advice, service information, andhelp in tackling inequalities

Take a central role in the clinicalaspects of shared care protocols and liaising with specialist pharmacists formore complex patients

Undertake and lead on any specific medicinesoptimisation-based projects/portfolio areas of work as may be required by thePharmacy Team

Respondto MHRA alerts when required

Assist in implementing national andlocal prescribing policies, NICE guidance, and medicines optimisationinitiatives.

Contribute to patient safety audits,quality improvement work, and data analysis related to prescribing.

CollaboratingWorking Relationships

Develop relationships with otherpharmacy technicians, pharmacists and members of the multi-disciplinary team tosupport integration of the pharmacy team across health and social care to helpimprove patient outcomes, ensure better access to healthcare and help managegeneral practice workload.

Workcollaboratively with ICB pharmacy team and local community pharmacies

Provide advice when needed topractice reception teams in sorting and streaming general prescription requests

Collaborate closely with GPs,clinical pharmacists, and wider PCN teams to optimise prescribing and reducemedicines waste.

Educationand Training

Attend internal and externalmeetings and any training courses and supervision sessions as required.

You will be expected to enrol on theCPPE Primary Care Pharmacy Education Pathway (PCPEP) if you have not completedalready or can be exempted.

Develop a good working knowledge ofthe clinical systems used by the practices (SystmOne)

PracticeTargets

Supportthe implementation of national prescribing policies and guidance within GPpractices, care homes and other primary care settings. This will be achievedthrough undertaking clinical audits, supporting quality improvement measuresand contributing to the Quality and Outcomes Framework and enhanced services.

Supportthe delivery of the pharmacy and medicines optimisation elements of the networkservice specifications within the Network Contract DES and the MOIS scheme fromthe ICB.

Servicedevelopment

Workwith other healthcare professionals to create processes and Standard OperatingProcedures for use within the practice and pharmacy teams, which offerimprovement in consistency and delivery of our services to patients.

Contributepharmaceutical advice for the development and implementation of new services

Identifyareas of good practice and help to disseminate across the PCN

Liaisewith the practices and, where practicable, to standardise the medicinesmanagement process across the PCN

Promotion and set up of onlineordering including proxy ordering for care homes.

Undertake any other duties as may reasonably be requiredfrom time to time.

Person Specification

Other

• Be able to organise workload, multi-task and work under pressure and achieve tight deadlines
• Work autonomously and within a team
• Ability to be flexible with hours if required
• Clear understanding of confidentiality
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, both written and verbal
• Have a flexible working attitude and willingness to adopt new ways of working
• Clear, concise record keeping and report writing skills
• Have attention to detail, able to work accurately, identifying errors quickly and easily
• Friendly and approachable
• Ability to drive/ have own car
• A wide range of IT skills especially Microsoft 365 software and specifically Excel.

Qualifications

• Professional registration with GPhC
• Evidence of continued professional development
• Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education primary care Pharmacy Education Pathway (PCPEP) qualification, or be working towards this.
• Experience working in primary care as a Pharmacy Technician
• Evidence of additional supportive learning courses e.g.: smoking cessation or CPPE workshops

Experience

• Good clinical pharmacy knowledge of drugs and basic clinical therapeutics
• An appreciation of the nature of primary care prescribing, concepts of rational prescribing and strategies for
• improvement of prescribing
• Knowledge and understanding of pharmacy law and ethics and current legislation
• Relevant theoretical and practical knowledge of Primary Care Networks, General Practice and evidence-based medicine
• An appreciation of NHS agenda and government targets
• An understanding of the current PCN DES specifications
• Awareness of GP budget management and funding systems to enable GP
• clinical pharmacist services to assist delivery of PCN and NHS priorities and requirements for financial balance and quality
• Awareness of systems to support management of patients in a primary
• care setting, delivering pharmaceutical input and support in the context of
• pathways of care and the business of the organisations
• Experience of working with clinical management systems, especially SystmOne.
• A wide range of IT skills especially Microsoft 365 software and specifically Excel.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.