Pharmacy Technician

Job responsibilities

Main Duties and Responsibilities

The Pharmacy Technician is to assume the following key responsibilities in delivering health services.

• Support the role of the Clinical Pharmacist and GPs on the delivery of the new Clinical Pharmacy in General Practice model
• Undertake patient facing and patient supporting roles to ensure effective medicines use through shared decision-making conversations with patients
• Conduct medicine optimisation tasks including effective medicine administration (e.g., checking inhaler technique), support medication reviews and medicines reconciliation. When required, utilise consultation skills to work in partnership with patients to ensure they use their medicines effectively
• Carry out medicines switches in GP practices in line with practice and ICB agreed specific protocols reviewing patients records; amending records and informing patients
• Improve prescribing processes in general practice
• Liaise with other pharmacy stakeholders e.g. ICB Medicines Optimisation team, community pharmacy, and hospital pharmacy teams.
• Support medication reviews and medicines reconciliation for new care home patients and synchronise medicines for patient transfers between care settings and linking with local community pharmacists
• Provide specialist expertise, when 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
• Maintain a central role in the clinical aspects of shared care protocols and liaise with specialist pharmacists for more complex patients
• Support initiatives for antimicrobial stewardship to reduce inappropriate antibiotic prescribing
• Assist in the delivery of medicines optimisation and management incentive schemes and patient safety audits;
• 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;
• 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
• To undertake, participate and share the outcomes of clinical audits to facilitate improvement and changes in practice
• Ensure that all major MHRA drug alerts, where appropriate and within level of competence, are acted upon within practices over an appropriate time frame and to advise on any medication changes that occur as a result
• To undertake learning and development to ensure the required knowledge and skills for practice based work
• Contribute to public health campaigns (e.g., COVID-19 or flu clinics) through advice or direct care
• Maintain a clean, tidy, effective working area at all times.

Secondary responsibilities

In addition to the primary responsibilities, the pharmacy technician may be requested to:

• Partake in audit as directed by the audit lead
• Provide education on medicines for the clinical team
• Review the latest guidance ensuring the practice conforms to NICE, CQC etc.
• Act as the practice point of contact for all medicines related matters, establishing positive working relationships

Qualifications

Essential

• - GSCE in Maths, English and science or equivalent
• - NVQ level 3 in pharmacy services or equivalent and be registered with the GPhC

Generic Responsibilities

Essential

• All staff at Wealden Ridge Medical Partnership have a duty to conform to the following:
• Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
• A good attitude and positive action towards ED&I creates an environment where all individuals are able to 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 PCN is committed to supporting and promoting opportunities for staff to maintain their health, well-being 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. All personnel are to comply with the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, Environmental Protection Act 1990, Environment Act 1995, Fire Precautions (workplace) Regulations 1999 and other statutory legislation.
• Confidentiality
• The PCN and associated practices are 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 at all times.
• It is essential that, if the legal requirements are to be met and the trust of our patients is to be retained, all staff protect patient information and provide a confidential service.
• Quality and Continuous Improvement (CI)
• To preserve and improve the quality of PCN 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 PCN and practices 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.
• Wealden Ridge Medical 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
• In addition to the induction process at Wealden Ridge Medical Partnership where you will be provided with a full induction programme, when attending any practice within the network you will also be required to complete their practice induction programme.
• Whilst across the PCN we aim to standardise this process, inevitably there will be nuances particular to each practice. In any such instance, the practice management team will support you with this.
• 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 and complete mandatory training as directed by the Practice Manager. 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 in order 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. To 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 in order to ensure easy and accurate information retrieval for monitoring and audit processes.
• Service delivery
• Staff will be given detailed information during the induction process regarding policy and procedure.
• The post holder must adhere to the information contained within PCN and local practice policies and regional directives, ensuring protocols are adhered to at all times.
• Security
• The security of the practice is the responsibility of all personnel. The post holder must ensure they remain vigilant at all times 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.
• PCN staff members are to familiarise themselves and comply with local practice protocol.

Experience

Essential

• Essential
• - Evidence of working autonomously or as part of a team
• Skills
• Essential
• - Ability to communicate complex and sensitive information effectively with people at all levels by telephone, email and face to face
• - Knowledge of IT systems, including the ability to use word processing skills, emails and the internet to create simple plans and reports
• - Good personal organisational skills
• - Effective time management
• - Demonstrate personal accountability, emotional resilience and work well under pressure
• Personal Qualities
• Essential
• - Ability to follow legal, ethical, professional and organisational policies/procedures and codes of conduct
• - Ability to use own initiative, discretion and sensitivity
• - Able to get along with people from all backgrounds and communities, respecting lifestyles and diversity
• - Flexible and cooperative
• - Ability to identify risk and assess/manage risk when working with individuals
• - Sensitive and empathetic in distressing situations
• - Able to finish work tasks
• - Problem solving and analytical skills
• - Ability to maintain confidentiality
• - Knowledge of and ability to work to policies and procedures, including confidentiality, safeguarding, lone working, information governance, and health and safety
• Other requirements
• Essential
• - Flexibility to work outside of core office hours
• - Disclosure Barring Service (DBS) check
• - Access to own transport and ability to travel across the locality on a regular basis, including to visit people in their own home

Desirable

• Desirable
• - Experience working in a primary care setting
• - Understanding and knowledge of healthcare provision in GP practices, QoF and enhanced services
• - An appreciation of the new NHS landscape including the relationships between individual practices, PCNs and the commissioners
• - Good clinical system IT knowledge of EMIS/Docman

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.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).