Middleton & Hunslet PCN Pharmacy Technician

South & East Leeds GP Group; Leeds; On-site; GBP 28,000 - 35,000; Full time

Job summary

A healthcare provider in Leeds seeks a Pharmacy Technician to optimize medicines use within the Middleton & Hunslet Primary Care Network. The role includes patient interaction, medication reviews, and collaboration with clinical pharmacists to enhance patient care. Successful applicants will demonstrate strong consultation skills and experience in medicines optimisation practices. This position offers a unique opportunity to work within a multi-disciplinary team to improve patient health outcomes.

Qualifications

• Understanding of medicines optimisation principles.
• Ability to manage shared care protocols.
• Experience in supporting medication reviews and reconciliations.

Responsibilities

• Undertake patient-facing conversations to optimise medicine use.
• Support medication reviews and reconcile medicines.
• Manage shared care protocols with clinical pharmacists.

Skills

Patient-facing skills

Medicines optimisation

Consultation skills

Public health knowledge

Job description

Overview

Pharmacy technicians play an important role, complementing clinical pharmacists, community pharmacists and other members of the PCN multi‑disciplinary team. Pharmacy technicians are different to clinical pharmacists as they are not able to prescribe or make clinical decisions, instead working under supervision to ensure effective and efficient use of medicines.

The purpose of the role is to lead improvements to maximise safe, cost‑effective best practice in prescribing to improve the quality of patient care. The post holder will help patients to get the best from their medicines by switching medications to agreed and approved protocols, improving repeat prescribing processes in General Practice, including promotion of repeat dispensing and online ordering, minimising clinical risk and aiming to reduce wasted medicines. The post holder will also be responsible for encouraging the development of better understanding of the principles of medicines optimisation throughout the practice teams and promoting good practice in line with therapeutic developments. This will involve assisting the PCN in achieving national requirements, NICE implementation and utilisation of medicines optimisation initiatives.

Core responsibilities cover clinical, technical and administrative categories.

Responsibilities

• Undertake patient‑facing and patient‑supporting roles to ensure effective medicines use, through shared decision‑making conversations with patients.
• Carry out medicines optimisation tasks including effective medicine administration (e.g., checking inhaler technique), supporting medication reviews and medicines reconciliation.
• Use consultation skills to work in partnership with patients to ensure they use their medicines effectively.
• Support medication reviews and medicines reconciliation for new care home patients and synchronise medicines for patient transfers between care settings, linking with local community pharmacies.
• Support the Clinical Pharmacist in Structured Medication Reviews (SMR), e.g., organise necessary monitoring tests prior to SMR.
• Provide expertise to address both public health and social care needs of patients, including lifestyle advice, service information, and help in tackling local health inequalities.
• Manage shared care protocols and liaise with Clinical Pharmacists for more complex patients.
• Support initiatives for antimicrobial stewardship to reduce inappropriate antibiotic prescribing locally.

Location

Middleton & Hunslet Primary Care Network – working across the 4 GP Practices in our PCN and the 10 Care Homes that we cover.

About the PCN

Primary Care Networks (PCNs) form a key building block of the NHS long‑term plan. Bringing general practices together to work at scale has been a policy priority for some years to improve recruitment, retention, manage financial and estates pressures, provide a wider range of services to patients and integrate more easily with the wider health and care system. Middleton and Hunslet PCN is a large PCN with a patient list size of circa 33,000 patients. Of this, we currently provide clinical support to 10 Care Homes, with a population of around 360 beds. We have a significant workforce in place which brings wonderful opportunities for in‑house multi‑disciplinary team working. We have a well‑developed multidisciplinary team including a Pharmacy Team, Occupational Therapists, Social Prescribers, a range of nursing/HCA staff and more, which means that the majority of any patient's needs can now be provided on their own doorstep.

Middleton & Hunslet PCN also works collaboratively with Beeston PCN, forming BMH (Beeston, Middleton & Hunslet PCNs), ensuring continuity of care between the two.

To note, this role is exclusively for Middleton and Hunslet PCN.