Pharmacist Technician

Wessex LMCs Ltd.; Southampton; Hybrid; GBP 22,000 - 32,000; Full time

Job summary

Southampton Sea City Partnership is recruiting a Pharmacy Technician (Salary AFC Band 5 equivalent pro-rata with NHS Pension) to support medicines optimisation services within our practices and enhance safe, cost-effective prescribing.

You will work alongside pharmacists to reconcile medicines, support Structured Medication Reviews, advise Drs, Nurses and staff, and contribute to audits, MOIS, NICE guidance, and quality improvement.

Qualifications

• NVQ level 3 in Pharmaceutical Services (or equivalent).
• Pharmacy Technician Registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC).
• Evidence of continuing professional development (CPD).
• Experience of working in GP practice or NHS provider as a pharmacy technician (hospital or community pharmacy).

Responsibilities

• Providing specialist pharmaceutical services, professional advice and direct support to the multi-disciplinary team to promote safe, effective and cost‑effective use of medicines.
• Liaising with patients, clinical and non‑clinical staff, practice, hospital and community pharmacists/technicians and carers to improve pharmaceutical care.
• Carrying out medicines reconciliation and updating patients’ medical records; referring discrepancies to clinical pharmacists or GPs.
• Assisting in Structured Medication Reviews (SMRs) and related monitoring; supporting long‑term condition reviews with lifestyle and medication advice.
• Responding to medication queries from patients and staff; promoting safe prescribing and reducing medicines waste.
• Support with QOF, MOIS, NICE guidance implementation, antimicrobial stewardship and prescribing audits.

Education

NVQ level 3 in Pharmaceutical Services (or equivalent)

Pharmacy Technician Registered with GPhC

Evidence of CPD

Experience of working in GP practice or NHS provider as a pharmacy technician

Job description

Pharmacist Technician - Southampton Sea City Partnership

• Job Summary

An exciting opportunity has arisen within the newly formed Sea City Partnership for keen and committed individuals to join our friendly team to develop medicines optimisation services within our practices.

The post holder will play a key role in improving safe and cost-effective prescribing, enhancing patient outcomes, reducing health inequalities, and supporting public health initiatives.

We are looking to recruit a Pharmacy Technician (Salary AFC Band 5 equivalent pro-rata with NHS Pension available) to enhance the care of our patients.

The posts will complement the existing Pharmacist Team, who will provide professional support and development.

We will welcome applications from all sectors of Pharmacy, and you will be fully supported with a comprehensive induction and ongoing training.

If you have the drive, motivation and enthusiasm to work with us and other agencies to improve the quality of care to patients and be at the forefront of developing an exciting Health Service Provider.

• Mission Statement

We aim to provide all of our patients with high quality, person-centred, accessible, integrated care in a safe, responsive and courteous manner. In order to do this we will:

• Provide a service which puts patient safety, care and wellbeing at the heart of all we do.
• Convey compassion in all that we do, assessing and responding to need.
• Respect all, show courtesy, seek to understand, treat all fairly, value each person as a unique individual and support the vulnerable.
• Act with integrity and be accountable for our actions.
• Continuously learn and improve, adapting to change and building on achievements to develop our services.
• Promote best practice encouraging continuous professional development of all members of the Practice Team and valuing the contribution of each team member.
• Nurture a culture which is innovative, inclusive, open and mutually supportive
• Key Responsibilities
  • The post holder will be responsible for:
• Providing specialist pharmaceutical services, professional advice and direct support to Dr’s, Nurses, HCAs, ANP’s, Reception/Administrative Staff and the wider multi-disciplinary ARRS team to promote the safe, effective and high-quality, cost-effective use of medicines.
• Liaising with patients, clinical and non-clinical staff, practice, hospital and community pharmacists/ technicians and patient’s carers to improve the pharmaceutical care of patients.
• Undertaking medicines reconciliation in accordance with practice protocols and within clinical competence to update patients’ medical records accordingly referring on any discrepancies promptly to the clinical pharmacists or GPs.
• Assisting clinical pharmacists in Structured Medication Reviews (SMRs), including arranging required monitoring and carrying out preparatory work.
• Supporting the clinical pharmacists with long term condition reviews through lifestyle and medication advice.
• Responding to medication queries from patients, carers, and staff, providing counselling where appropriate.
• Liaising with community pharmacy teams for items which are out of stock, supporting compliance with medication and promoting lifestyle advice (smoking/alcohol).
• Promoting safe and effective prescribing, reduce medicines waste, and support repeat prescribing systems.
• To work with reception staff and medicines managers to help manage repeat prescription requests, resolving queries where possible and producing prescriptions for clinical review.
• Supporting the team with QOF, MOIS, NICE guidance implementation, antimicrobial stewardship, and prescribing audits.
• Training and supporting admin staff and pharmacy colleagues in safe prescribing processes.
• Participate in audits, service evaluation, and policy development to improve medicine use.
• Monitoring and developing recall systems to ensure that all patients have appropriate therapeutic drug monitoring.
• Responding to medicines related MHRA safety alerts.
• Assisting in the appropriate monitoring of high-risk medications through patient safety searches.
• Processing and reviewing shared care agreements received from other healthcare providers.
• Communication Responsibilities:
• Work collaboratively with multidisciplinary teams, contributing to patient group meetings and service discussions.
• Provide information and support to patients, carers, and professionals, tailored to their needs and understanding.
• Knowledge, Education, and Training Responsibilities:
  • Participate in delivering training to staff and patient groups.
• Take responsibility for CPD and revalidation requirements with the GPhC.
• Identify and undertake training to support service needs, including IT systems (Systm One, AccuRx, Anima).
• Management and Leadership:
  • Manage own workload effectively, working independently and as part of a team.
• Support pharmacists with QOF and MOIS and other medicine-related targets.
• Contribute to audits, data collection, and reporting to commissioners.
• Supervise and train administrative and trainee staff as required
• Quality and Service Improvement:
• Identify risks and ensure safe practice in medicines management.
• Contribute to evidence-based practice, audit, and research.
• Participate in service improvement initiatives and development of clinical standards and protocols.
• Promote patient and public involvement to inform service improvements.

The above is not exhaustive. The postholder may from time to time be required to undertake other activities commensurate with the expected levels of responsibility and scope of the role, within levels of attained competence. This will be dependent upon factors such as workload and staffing levels, annual leave cover.

• Corporate responsibilities (common to all our team members)

All staff at Southampton Sea City Partnership have a duty to conform to the following:

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

A good attitude and positive action towards Equality Diversity & Inclusion (ED&I) creates an environment where all individuals can achieve their full potential. Creating such an environment is important for three reasons – it improves operational effectiveness; it is morally the right thing to do and it is required by law.

Patients and their families have the right to be treated fairly and be routinely involved in decisions about their treatment and care. They can expect to be treated with dignity and respect and will not be discriminated against on any grounds including age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.

Patients have a responsibility to treat other patients and our staff with dignity and respect.

Staff have the right to be treated fairly in recruitment and career progression. Staff can expect to work in an environment where diversity is valued, and equality of opportunity is promoted. Staff will not be discriminated against on any grounds including age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation. Staff have a responsibility to ensure that they treat our patients and their colleagues with dignity and respect.

Safety, Health, Environment and Fire (SHEF)

This Practice is committed to supporting and promoting opportunities for staff to maintain their health, wellbeing and safety.

The post holder is to manage and assess risk within the areas of responsibility, ensuring adequate measures are in place to protect staff and patients and monitor work areas and practices to ensure they are safe and free from hazards and conform to health, safety and security legislation, policies, procedures and guidelines.

All personnel have a duty to take reasonable care of health and safety at work for themselves, their team and others and to cooperate with employers to ensure compliance with health and safety requirements.

• Other statutory legislation which may be brought to the post holder’s attention.

Confidentiality

The Practice is committed to maintaining an outstanding confidential service. Patients entrust and permit us to collect and retain sensitive information relating to their health and other matters pertaining to their care. They do so in confidence and have a right to expect all staff will respect their privacy and maintain confidentiality.

It is essential that, if the legal requirements are to be met and the trust of our patients is to be retained, all staff must protect patient information and provide a confidential service.

Quality and Continuous Improvement (CI)

To preserve and improve the quality of this Practice’s outputs, all personnel are required to think not only of what they do but how they achieve it. By continually re-examining our processes, we will be able to develop and improve the overall effectiveness of the way we work.

The responsibility for this rests with everyone working within the Practice to look for opportunities to improve quality and share good practice and to discuss, highlight and work with the team to create opportunities to improve patient care.

Southampton Sea City Partnership continually strives to improve work processes which deliver healthcare with improved results across all areas of our service provision. We promote a culture of continuous improvement where everyone counts, and staff are permitted to make suggestions and contributions to improve our service delivery and enhance patient care.

Staff should interpret national strategies and policies into local implementation strategies that are aligned to the values and culture of general practice.

All staff are to contribute to investigations and root cause analyses whilst participating in serious incident investigations and multidisciplinary case reviews.

Induction

At Southampton Sea City Partnership, you will be required to complete the induction programme, and the Practice management team will support you throughout the process.

Learning and development

The effective use of training and development is fundamental in ensuring that all staff are equipped with the appropriate skills, knowledge, attitude and competences to perform their role. All staff will be required to partake in and complete mandatory training as directed by your Line Manager and/or HR. It is an expectation for this post holder to assess their own learning needs and undertake learning as appropriate.

The post holder will undertake mentorship for team members and disseminate learning and information gained to other team members to share good practice and inform others about current and future developments (e.g., courses and conferences). The post holder will provide an educational role to patients, carers, families and colleagues in an environment that facilitates learning.

Collaborative working

All staff are to recognise the significance of collaborative working and understand their own role and scope and identify how this may develop over time. Staff are to prioritise their own workload and ensure effective time-management strategies are embedded within the culture of the team.

Teamwork is essential in multidisciplinary environments and the post holder is to work as an effective and responsible team member, supporting others and exploring the mechanisms to develop new ways of working and work effectively with others to clearly define values, direction and policies impacting upon care delivery

Effective communication is essential, and all staff must ensure they communicate in a manner which enables the sharing of information in an appropriate manner. All staff should delegate clearly and appropriately, adopting the principles of safe practice and assessment of competence. Plans and outcomes by which to measure success should be agreed.

Managing information

All staff should use technology and appropriate software as an aid to management in the planning, implementation and monitoring of care and presenting and communicating information. Data should be reviewed and processed using accurate SNOMED/read codes to ensure easy and accurate information retrieval for monitoring and audit processes.

Staff will be given detailed information during the induction process regarding policy and procedure. The post holder must adhere to the information contained within the Practices policies and regional directives, ensuring protocols are always adhered to.

Security

The security of the Practice is the responsibility of all personnel. The post holder must ensure they always remain vigilant and report any suspicious activity immediately to their line manager. Under no circumstances are staff to share the codes for the door locks with anyone and are to ensure that restricted areas remain effectively secured. Likewise, password controls are to be maintained and are not to be shared.

Professional conduct

All staff are required to dress appropriately for their role.

Leave

All personnel are entitled to take leave. Line managers are to ensure all their staff are afforded the opportunity to take a minimum of 5 weeks (pro-rata) leave each year and should be encouraged to take all their leave entitlement. Additionally, public/bank holidays will be calculated on a pro-rated basis dependent on the number of hours worked.

Qualifications:

• NVQ level 3 in Pharmaceutical Services (or equivalent)
• Pharmacy Technician Registered with General Pharmaceutical council.
• Evidence of CPD
• Experience of working in GP practice or NHS provider as a pharmacy technician (hospital or community pharmacy).

St Marys Surgery, 1 Johnson Street, Southampton, SO14 1LT