Job responsibilities
Clinical
- Undertaking patient facing and patient supporting roles to ensure
effective medicines use, through shared decision-making
conversations with patients.
- Carrying out medicines optimisation tasks including effective medicine
administration (e.g. checking inhaler technique), supporting medication
reviews and medicines reconciliation. Where required, utilise
consultation skills to work in partnership with patients to ensure they
use their medicines effectively.
- As determined by the PCN, supporting medication reviews and
medicines reconciliation for new care home patients and synchronising
medicines for patient transfers between care settings, linking with local
community pharmacists, and referring to the pharmacist for structured
medication reviews.
- Providing 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.
- Taking a central role in the clinical aspects of shared care protocols
and liaising with specialist pharmacists for more complex patients.
- Supporting initiatives for antimicrobial stewardship to reduce
inappropriate antibiotic prescribing.
Technical and Administrative:
- Working with the PCN multi-disciplinary team to ensure efficient
medicines optimisation, including implementing efficient ordering and
return processes and reducing wastage.
- Providing training and support on the legal, safe and secure handling of
medicines, including the implementation of the Electronic Prescription
Service (EPS).
- Developing relationships with other pharmacy technicians, pharmacists
and members of the multi-disciplinary team to support integration of the
pharmacy team across health and social care including primary care,
community pharmacy, secondary care and mental health.
- Supervising practice reception teams in sorting and streaming general
prescription requests, so as to allow GPs and clinical pharmacists to
review the more clinically complex requests.
The role will also require pharmacy technicians to 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
enhanced services. In addition, pharmacy technicians will assist in the
delivery of medicines optimisation incentive schemes (e.g. medicines
switches) and patient safety audits.
Pharmacy technicians will provide leadership for medicines management
systems across PCNs, supporting practices with a range of services to get the
best value from medicines by encouraging and implementing Electronic
Prescriptions, safe repeat prescribing systems, and timely monitoring and
management of high-risk medicines).
Training requirements
Pharmacists undertake a masters level qualification (MPharmS) plus a one year post-graduate pre-registration structured programme regulated by the
GPhC. The new curriculum for pre-registration trainee pharmacy technicians
is being tested with placements in general practice, through the Pharmacy
Integration Fund (PhIF).
Eligibility for reimbursement under the Network Contract DES and proposals
for reimbursement.
All pharmacy technicians must have completed or be enrolled in, be
undertaking or be prepared to start an approved 18-month training pathway
(e.g. Primary care pharmacy educational pathway (PCPEP) or Medicines
Optimisation in Care Homes (MOCH)). Pharmacy technicians must be
registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council. Entry to the PCPEP
programme will include the option for an accreditation of Prior Learning
(APEL) process.
Confidentiality:
- In the course of seeking treatment, patients entrust us with, or allow us
to gather, sensitive information in relation to their health and other
matters. They do so in confidence and have the right to expect that
staff will respect their privacy and act appropriately
- Information relating to patients, carers, colleagues, other healthcare
workers or the business of the practice may only be divulged to
authorised persons in accordance with the practice policies and
procedures relating to confidentiality and the protection of personal and
sensitive data
This job description is not exhaustive and may be adjusted periodically after
review and consultation. You will also be expected to carry out any reasonable
duties which may be requested from time-to-time.