Pharmacy Technician

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

Job summary

A leading healthcare provider is seeking a Pharmacy Technician to enhance patient care quality by managing medication processes and supporting the clinical team. The ideal candidate will have strong attention to detail and experience in a primary care setting. Responsibilities include conducting medication reviews, managing prescriptions, and ensuring adherence to protocols. This role offers a supportive environment within a reputable practice, contributing to the wider healthcare team.

Qualifications

• Qualified pharmacy technician with experience in primary care.
• Evidence of continued professional development (CPD) required.
• Completed Primary Care Pharmacy Education Pathway.

Responsibilities

• Assisting with structured medication reviews and accurate records.
• Processing and authorising repeat prescription requests.
• Identifying medication-related issues and ensuring compliance.

Skills

Attention to detail

Patient communication

Medication management

Education

Professional registration with GPhC

BTEC/NVQ level 3 in pharmaceutical sciences

Job description

Pharmacy technicians play an important role, complementing clinicalpharmacists, community pharmacists and other members of the PCNmulti-disciplinary team. Pharmacy technicians are different to clinicalpharmacists as they are not able to prescribe or make clinical decisions,instead working under supervision to ensure effective and efficient use ofmedicines. Pharmacy technicians core role responsibilities will cover clinical,and technical and administrative categories.

The purpose of the role is to lead improvements to maximise safe, costeffective best practice in prescribing to improve the quality of patient care.The post holder will help patients to get the best from their medicines byswitching medications to agreed and approved protocols, improving repeatprescribing processes in General Practice, including promotion of repeatdispensing and online ordering, minimising clinical risk and aiming to reduce wasted medicine.

In addition, the post holder will be responsible for encouraging thedevelopment of better understanding of the principles of medicines optimisationthroughout the practice teams and promoting good practice in line withtherapeutic developments. This will involve assisting the PCN in achievingnational requirements, NICE implementation and utilisation of medicines optimisation initatives.

Main duties of the job

MedicationReviews - assisting with structured medication reviews, reconciling medicinespost-discharge and ensuring accurate records.

RepeatPrescriptions - processing and authorising repeat prescription requests in linewith practice protocols and clinical guidelines.

MedicationSafety - identifying and resolving medication-related issues, ensuring compliancewith national and local prescribing policies and contributing to audits.

Patient Education - providing advice on medication use, side effects andadherence to treatment plans

Supporting our GPs and Clinical Pharmacists - working with the clinical team to improve prescribing qualityand manage high-risk medicines.

Stock Management - ensuring efficient ordering, storage and disposal ofmedicines within the practice

Data and Reporting - assisting with prescribing audits, data collection andreporting for quality improvement initiatives

Coding clinical correspondence- ensuring accuracyof clinical records by recording and coding relevant clinical information.

About us

Bath Road Surgery is a CQC-rated 'Good' teaching practice serving over 14,000 patients in a modern, purpose-built environment. As part of the Hounslow PCN, our practice values accuracy, attention to details, and professionalism in supporting the delivery of a daily high-quality patient care. We are proud of our diverse, supportive and collaborative team culture.

The clinical team is supported by a skilled and well organised administration team

We use SystmOne for our Clinical system, and also utilise various digital platforms such as Accurx to support our processes.

The Practice fosters a strong ethos of mutual support and teamwork meeting regularly to discuss clinical cases.

Job responsibilities

Working with GPs and clinical pharmacists to implement changes to prescriptions to records in response to written requests on prescribers instructions.

Supporting timely repeat prescribing by:

• Liaising with community and hospital pharmacies regarding patients and their medications
• Managing the requests for urgent repeat prescriptions received by reception
• Managing the alignment prescription requests from patients and care homes

Reconciling medicines following discharge from hospitals, intermediate care.

After clinical review conducted by the GPs or Clinical Pharmacists ensuring patients receive up to date repeat slips and are booked for further blood tests, dose titration or medication counselling appointments.

Familiarising yourself with practice routines and working methods for prescribing and some practice systems e.g. Near Patient Testing. Understand QOF and practice systems for ensuring safe prescribing.

Working to improve medication optimisation by working with GPs and Clinical Pharmacists to optimise prescribing, for example communicating approved medication changes to patients and updating medications list.

Being available to staff, GPs and clinical pharmacists to provide support on medicines management and liaise with community pharmacies to improve practice prescribing systems, patient care and costs.

Tracking EPS prescriptions and directing to relevant pharmacy.

Ensuring old non-dispensed prescriptions are not dispensed by the relevant pharmacy.

Communicating changes to regular medications for vulnerable patients (with consent) to community pharmacy to achieve continuity of care.

Focus on medicine availability and changing to alternative medicines when there are supply problems.

Communicate with the local community pharmacies to understand the supply problem and find out which alternatives are locally available for the prescribers to consider.

Supporting the clinical pharmacists to promote further integration of general practice with the wider healthcare teams, including community and hospital pharmacy, to help improve patient outcomes, ensure better access to healthcare and help manage general practice workload.

Proactively managing the practice response to drug recalls, including conducting patient searches and researching alternatives.

Working with the practice manager, GPs and clinical pharmacists to ensure the practice is compliant with CQC standards where medicines are involved, including inviting patients to medication reviews and taking action for those who fail to attend.

Promoting safer prescribing by conducting the searches for audits as directed by GPs and clinical pharmacists.

Supporting the Clinical Pharmacist in Structure Medication Reviews (SMR) i.e. organising necessary monitoring tests prior to SMR.

Ensuring accuracy of clinical records by recording and coding relevant clinical information.

Undertaking the Primary Care Education Pathway for Clinical Pharmacy.

Person Specification

Experience

• Experience of working as a qualified, registered pharmacy technician in primary care, community or hospital pharmacy.
• Experience of working as a qualified, registered pharmacy technician in primary care - GP practice.

Qualifications

• The post holder will need to have a Professional registration with GPhC. BTEC/NVQ level 3 or equivalent in pharmaceutical sciences and evidence of continued professional development (CPD).
• CPPE - Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education - completed Primary care pharmacy education pathway

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.