Foundation Pharmacist

Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust; Wakefield; On-site; GBP 32,000 - 40,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading healthcare provider in Wakefield is seeking a Foundation Pharmacist to join their innovative pharmacy team. The successful candidate will participate in a structured clinical rotation across various specialties, including general surgery and pediatrics. Responsibilities include dispensing medications, supervising staff, and providing patient education. This role supports work-life balance with generous benefits including a flexible working scheme and career progression opportunities.

Benefits

Access to NHS pension plan

Generous holiday allowance

Employee health and wellbeing services

Flexible working options

Qualifications

• Masters Degree in pharmacy from a recognized institution.
• Achieved membership of the General Pharmaceutical Council.
• Experience from one year’s pre-registration training.

Responsibilities

• Dispense medicines and check prescriptions for accuracy.
• Supervise pharmacy technicians and trainees.
• Provide patient education regarding medications.
• Support emergency out-of-hours pharmacy services.

Skills

Clinical skills

Team collaboration

Communication

Time management

Education

Masters Degree in Pharmacy

Membership of General Pharmaceutical Council

Job description

Contact information

If you would like to discuss this post further please contact Louise Benton - Pharmacy Lead for Education and Training

[e-mail] 01924 541393

About the role

The Pharmacy team at Mid Yorkshire Hospitals are a friendly, innovative, and successful team. The Foundation Pharmacist programme will support you in your initial journey in hospital pharmacy. The programme includes clinical rotations through various specialties at each of our hospital sites including medicine for older people, general surgery, paediatrics, cardiology, endocrinology, maternity and acute admissions. You will also gain experience working in our dispensaries, technical services and medicines information departments.

Training and support will be led by our Advanced Clinical Pharmacist for Education & Training with additional support provided by our senior and specialist pharmacists and our team of experienced technicians and support workers, which will enable the successful candidate to gain a thorough knowledge base and experience of clinical pharmacy. You will be supported through a structured induction process as well as provided with a wide range of training and development opportunities to build your foundation portfolio, including support to complete a Post Graduate Diploma in clinical pharmacy and the opportunity to undertake a non‑medical prescribing qualification.

The successful candidate will contribute to our emergency out of hours service, late night and weekend service on a rotational basis.

Main duties

• Carry out duties in the dispensary to help ensure that medicines are provided in a timely fashion for in‑patients. These duties will include :
• Act as the Responsible Pharmacist in line with local procedure.
• Clinical and accuracy checking of prescriptions.
• Dispensing medicines.
• Dealing with medicines for clinical trial patients.
• Supervising technicians and trainee pharmacists.
• Educating patients and / or their representatives about their medicines.
• Liaising with various members of the multi‑disciplinary team.
• Managing and prioritising own workload to tight deadlines and ensuring urgent work is done.
• Carry out duties in the Technical Services section, which will include :
• Clinical and accuracy checking of prescriptions.
• Dispensing and supervision of others in dispensing (by manipulation and reconstitution) injectable medicines (and ensuring safe and appropriate disposal of sharps and other waste).
• Preparation and dispensing of special formulations for external or internal use.
• Liaising with medical and nursing staff with a view to providing advice about intravenous nutrition (TPN) prescriptions.
• Handling and dispensing medicines used in the treatment of cancer (cytotoxic medicines).
• Carry out duties in Medicines Information in order to provide help and advice to medical and nursing colleagues and where appropriate patients about the use of medicines.
• These duties will include :
• Development and usage of sound telephone techniques
• Researching the literature through manual and computer based sources
• Providing written and / or verbal responses to enquirers who may include hospital and external staff, eg GPs, Community nurses etc
• Keeping appropriate records relating to these queries
• Reporting suspected adverse reactions to drugs to the Committee on Safety of Medicines via the national reporting scheme
• Work at ward level, across the trust, to provide pharmaceutical care to patients.
• This care will include :
• Talking to patients about their medications.
• Checking & or taking full medication histories
• Medicines Reconciliation and review assessment of medicines brought into hospital by the patient, appropriate monitoring of treatment given during the hospital stay to ensure safe, effective and cost efficient medicines use.
• Liaison with appropriate professionals and or carers to ensure seamless transition back to the community
• To facilitate implementation of local and national guidelines for medicines use
• Provide evidence based pharmaceutical advice to the medical and nursing staff in the Medical / Surgical Unit / Directorate. This may be active - where pharmaceutical problems identified by the post holder from the care plans require resolution, or passive - where doctors or nurses seek advice from the pharmacist.
• In a learning capacity, to attend and contribute to consultant / medical ward rounds and team meetings as part of the multidisciplinary team, where appropriate.
• Maintain professional accountability by keeping up to date and maintaining his / her own professional development record as required by the General Pharmaceutical Council.

Essential person specification requirements

• Masters Degree in pharmacy obtained through four year undergraduate training.
• Membership of the General Pharmaceutical Council achieved by 12 months pre‑registration training / experience and examination.
• Experience in pharmacy practice obtained through one year’s pre‑registration training and examination.

Be part of MY team

We are an acute trust caring for over one million people in Wakefield and Kirklees. Our 10,000 staff work in patients’ homes, the community, and our three hospitals in Pontefract, Dewsbury, and Pinderfields (Wakefield). We prioritise our people and values so we can deliver the best possible care to patients. Our team is friendly, passionate, and innovative, always seeking better ways to work.

We support work‑life balance and foster a diverse, inclusive environment where everyone belongs. Our staff networks offer safe spaces to share ideas and concerns so we can increase awareness and appreciation of equality, diversity, and inclusion. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and especially encourage members of the LGBTQ+ community, ethnic minority groups, and people with disabilities or neurodivergence to apply, as they are currently underrepresented in the Trust.

If you value caring, high standards, improvement, and respect, join the MY team to make a difference every day.

Application guidance

We understand that more applicants are using AI technology to help with their applications. While these tools can be useful, they cannot fully capture your skills, knowledge, and experience. It’s important that you personalise your application. Relying solely on AI is not recommended, as it may reduce your chances of success. Our screening process is thorough, so if you have used AI, please make sure to disclose this on your application form.

Our benefits

• Access to the NHS pension plan
• Generous holiday allowance of 27 days plus bank holidays, increasing with 5 and 10 years of service
• Exceptional employee health and wellbeing services
• Extensive benefits and support, including
  • Onsite nurseries and childcare salary sacrifice scheme
  • Cycle to work scheme
  • Home electronics scheme
  • Car lease salary sacrifice scheme
  • Working carers support and advice, carers network and carers passport
  • Flexible working options and family and carer‑friendly policies
  • Established staff networks, including LGBTQ+ and Race Equality
  • Career progression, training and support

Skilled worker sponsorship

You can find out more about skilled worker and health and care visas on our careers site.