Pharmacy Technician

NHS; Sutton; On-site; GBP 38,000 - 42,000; Full time

Job summary

A healthcare provider in the UK is looking for a Pharmacy Technician to join their team. The successful candidate will support clinical pharmacy services in general practice, ensuring effective medicines use and optimising patient care. This role requires a commitment to professional development, with a focus on collaborative working within a multi-disciplinary team of healthcare professionals. Salary ranges from £38,000 to £42,000 per year, depending on experience.

Qualifications

• Minimum 2 years post-qualification experience in a hospital, community, or general practice setting.
• Evidence of commitment to and able to demonstrate CPD including professional development.
• Knowledge of the breadth of common acute and long-term conditions likely to be seen in general practice.

Responsibilities

• Undertake patient facing and supporting roles to ensure effective medicines use.
• Conduct medicines optimisation tasks including effective medicine reviews.
• Support medication reviews for new care home patients.

Skills

Registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)

Clinical supervision experience

Medication counselling

Collaborative working

Education

Pharmacy Technician qualification

Management qualification/professional development

Tools

Emis NHS IT system

Job description

Overview

PCN is looking to employ PharmacyTechnician (2) under the additional roles reimbursement scheme. They will be accountable to the Primary CareNetworks, working in individual Practices within Central Sutton and most likely allocated to specific practices to work closely with and supporting that practice team. These individuals may also work across all PCNs in some cases where flexibility allows and for the purposes of cross cover and to ensure general practice resilience in Sutton. Working within their area of clinical competence and as part of a multi-disciplinary team. They will be supported by a Senior Clinical Pharmacist and others who will develop, manage, and mentor them. The role will be patient-facing and a pharmacy technician will help support pharmacists with structured medication reviews.

Main duties of the job

Clinical Pharmacy in General Practice is part of an exciting programme of transformation to develop a new model of care across the PCN. This model is supported by national policy including the Five Year Forward View and GP Forward View to better utilise the role of pharmacy professionals within the wider healthcare team. Overarching goals are to help keep patients safe and well out of hospital and reduce the demands on general practice with regards medicines use.

Pharmacy Technicians can help play an important role, complimenting clinical pharmacists, community pharmacists and other members of the PCN multi-disciplinary team. While Pharmacy Technicians do not prescribe nor make clinical decisions, they do work under supervision to ensure the effective and efficient use of medicines. In the PCN, their core responsibilities can cover clinical, technical, and administrative roles.

The purpose of the role is to maximise safe and cost-effective prescribing, to improve the quality of patient care. The post-holder will help patients get the best from their medicines, use existing protocols to maximise cost-effective preparations, improve repeat prescribing processes (including use of electronic repeat dispensing and online ordering), minimising clinical risk and reducing avoidable medicines wastage.

About us

Sutton has a population of approximately 200000 residents registered to 21 practices and there are currently 4 Primary Care Networks each serving a population of approximately 50000 patients. Our Sutton PCNs are forward-looking, friendly, and focused on providing a wide range of excellent healthcare services to patients in Sutton and the surrounding area. Our PCNs between them are led by 8 PCN Clinical Directors. The PCNs work together as they see the benefits of working together in a larger GP partnership and are delighted to be realising some of those benefits now. Because of our scale, not only are we more resilient and efficient but we are able to invest in continuous quality improvement, enhanced care, new services, and training and developing our workforce. We value the diversity of our colleagues and actively champion an inclusive culture and are committed to helping our colleagues achieve a work/life balance.

Job responsibilities

The Pharmacy Technician is to undertake the following clinical responsibilities in delivering health services:

• a. Undertake patient facing and patient supporting roles to ensure effective medicines use, through shared decision-making conversations with
• b. Conduct medicines optimisation tasks including effective medicine reviews and medicines reconciliation. Where required, utilise consultation skills to work in partnership with patients to ensure they use their
• c. Support, as determined by the PCN, medication reviews and medicines reconciliation for new care home patients and synchronise medicines for patient transfers between care settings and linking with local community
• d. Provide specialist expertise, where competent, to address both the public health and social care needs of patients including lifestyle advice, service information and help in tackling local health inequalities.
• e. Maintain a central role in the clinical aspects of shared care protocols and liaise with specialist pharmacists for more complex patients.
• f. Support initiatives for antimicrobial stewardship to reduce inappropriate antibiotic prescribing.
• g. Assist in the delivery of medicines optimisation and management incentive schemes and patient safety audits.
• h. Support the implementation of national prescribing policies and guidance within GP practices, care homes and other primary care settings. This will be achieved through undertaking clinical audits (e.g., use of antibiotics), supporting quality improvement measures and contributing to the Quality and Outcomes Framework and the Investment and Impact Fund (IIF) objectives.
• i. Attend a formal appraisal with your manager at least every 12 months. Once a performance/training objective has been set, progress will be reviewed on a regular basis so that new objectives can be agreed
• j. Contribute to public health campaigns through advice or direct care.
• k. Maintain a clean, tidy, effective working area at all times.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC).
• Meets the specific qualification and training requirements as specified by the GPhC criteria to register as a Pharmacy Technician.
• Enrolled in, undertaking or qualified from, an approved training pathway. For example, the Primary Care Pharmacy Educational Pathway (PCPEP) or Medicines Optimisation in Care Homes (MOCH)
• Evidence of commitment to and able to demonstrate CPD including Management qualification /professional development.

Experience

• Knowledge and Experience
• Minimum 2 years post-qualification experience in a hospital, community, or general practice setting.
• Working primary care including Emis knowledge of IT NHS.
• working under appropriate clinical supervision to ensure safe, effective and efficient use of medicines
• Understanding and knowledge of healthcare provision in GP practices, QOF, PCN Network Contract DES and IIF
• An appreciation of the new NHS landscape including the relationships between individual practices, PCNs and the commissioners
• Knowledge of the breadth of common acute and long-term conditions that are likely to be seen in general practice.
• Experience of collaborative working and of building relationships across a variety of organisations
• Able to undertake medication or medicine use reviews and offer patient counselling.
• Experience of facilitating change to improve clinical practice.
• Experience in undertaking clinical audit.

Criminal Background Check

• Meet DBS reference standards and have a clear criminal record (not subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974)

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.

Salary: £38,000 to £42,000 a year, depending on experience