Senior Dispensing Assistant | East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust

Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust; Colchester; On-site; GBP 25,000 - 35,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading NHS organization is seeking Senior Dispensing Assistants to join their Pharmacy team in Colchester. The role includes dispensing medications, ensuring accuracy, and assisting in customer interactions. The ideal candidate has pharmacy experience and is looking for development opportunities within a supportive environment. This position requires weekend availability and is not eligible for visa sponsorship.

Benefits

Generous pension scheme

27 days annual leave

NHS discounts

Qualifications

• Experience in pharmacy is essential.
• Formal qualification is desirable.
• Saturday, Sunday, and Bank Holiday commitments required.

Responsibilities

• Dispense medications for inpatients and outpatients.
• Label and package medicines appropriately.
• Operate the cash till for prescription payments.

Skills

Pharmacy experience

Customer service

Education

NVQ Level 2 or equivalent

Job description

Overview

Have you got the enthusiasm to take up the challenge of this permanent post? We are looking for Senior Dispensing Assistants to join our Pharmacy team. You will work within most areas of the ESNEFT Pharmaceutical Service based at Colchester Hospital, providing dispensing support to qualified staff.

Responsibilities

• To dispense for inpatients and outpatients by calculating appropriate dosage and quantities required against prescriptions/requisitions, following departmental Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).
• To ensure that all customers receive the appropriate medicine in the correct form and in a timely manner.
• To ensure that all medicines are labelled and packaged appropriately, and all relevant patient information and compliance aids/sundries are supplied.
• To dispense controlled drugs for ward stock and named patients, following all relevant Pharmacy procedures and legal requirements.
• To perform a self-check on all dispensed items to ensure accuracy and quality prior to placing the item in the designated area for final checking.
• To receive in prescriptions from a wide range of outpatient clients and use listening and questioning skills to obtain appropriate information to enable effective service provision.
• To operate the cash till and debit/credit card machine to take payment for prescriptions.
• To ensure that the declaration of payment/exemption on outpatient prescriptions has been correctly filled in and clearly endorsed with grounds for exemption if a fee is not paid.
• To sell over the counter products under the supervision of a pharmacist.

Qualifications

• Pharmacy experience is essential and a formal qualification is desirable, e.g. NVQ Level 2 or equivalent.
• Formal Saturday, Sunday and Bank Holiday commitments are mandatory and will be on a rostered basis.
• Please note this position is not eligible for a Health and Social Care Visa and does not meet the requirements for sponsorship for a Skilled Worker visa.

About ESNEFT

We are ESNEFT and we provide hospital and community health services to almost one million people across east Suffolk and north Essex. Our dedicated staff deliver care from acute hospitals in Colchester and Ipswich, community hospitals, surgeries, community clinics and in patients’ own homes.

We are one of the largest NHS organisations in England, employing more than 12,000 staff.

Benefits and Development

We pride ourselves on supporting our staff. We offer a wide range of training and development opportunities, as well as flexible working options. Along with supporting you to achieve your career goals we offer a generous pension scheme, unsocial hours payments (where applicable), 27 days annual leave on commencement (pro rata) and access to a range of NHS discounts. Our Staff Health and Wellbeing programme offers a variety of services.

Our philosophy is that Time Matters to everyone. Across the Trust, we concentrate on improving the things we do and removing those which cause time delays for our staff and patients.

We are investing in our commitment to Time Matters with a partnership with leading electronic patient record (EPR) supplier Epic. This digital transformation will bring what’s widely regarded as the world’s best EPR system to ESNEFT, transforming life in hospital for staff and patients.

Additional Information

If you are passionate about patient care and want to develop your skills and knowledge, then we want to hear from you.

Find out about living and working here - www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkPu7HphU8A

For full details of the responsibilities and duties of this role please see the attached job description.

This advert closes on Sunday 21 Sep 2025.