Pharmacy Technician

Job responsibilities

Job Summary

Clinical Pharmacy in General Practice is part of an exciting programme of transformation to develop a new model of care which addresses our ambition to deliver person-centred, co-ordinated care across the Primary Care Network. The Clinical Pharmacy in General Practice model is supported by the direction of national policy including the Five Year Forward View and GP Forward View where there is a need to better utilise the role of pharmacy within primary care to pro-actively help patients stay safe and well and out of hospital as well as helping to reduce the demands on general practice.

The Pharmacy Technician will support the role of the Pharmacist to deliver the Clinical Pharmacy in General Practice model of care; including supporting and assisting a network of GP practices. The purpose of the role is to lead improvements to maximise safe, cost effective best practice in prescribing to improve the quality of patient care. The post holder will help patients to get the best from their medicines by switching medications to agreed and approved protocols, improving repeat prescribing processes in general practices, including promotion of repeat dispensing and online ordering, minimising clinical risk and aiming to reduce wasted medicines.

In addition, the post holder will be responsible for encouraging the development of better understanding of the principles of medicines optimisation throughout the practice teams and promoting good practice in line with therapeutic developments. This will involve assisting the GP Federation in achieving national requirements, NICE implementation and utilisation of medicines optimisation initiatives.

The role requires enrolment on the 15-month CPPE Primary Care Pharmacy Education Pathway (unless this, or an equivalent pathway has already been completed). The PCN will provide full support for this excellent opportunity to ensure the successful applicant builds invaluable knowledge and skills to do the job effectively, and to network and build relationships with colleagues in similar roles across the country.

Job Purpose

Main Duties and Responsibilities

• Support the role of the Clinical Pharmacists across the PCN on the delivery of the Clinical Pharmacy in General Practice model
• Carry out medicine switches within the PCN practices and Care Homes in line with PCN, practice and CCG agreed specific protocols reviewing patients records; amending records and informing patients
• Carry out housekeeping whilst in patient records e.g. dose optimisation and medicines synchronisation
• Improve prescribing processes for patients registered with network practices
• Promotion of electronic repeat dispensing and online ordering
• Report on key performance indicators for CPGP to demonstrate added value for patients and general practice in accordance with NICE guidance
• Use and maintain information systems and databases relevant to the position including incident reporting, medicines optimisation, prescribing data, cost savings and patient outcomes
• Participate in practice meetings, patient participation groups, Care Home Reviews and other meetings to improve engagement of the role of pharmacy technician within the CPGP model and to promote issues relevant to prescribing and medicines optimisation
• Liaise with other pharmacy stakeholders e.g. CCG Medicines Optimisation team, community pharmacy, and hospital pharmacy teams.
• Support the CCG Medicines Optimisation team in the delivery of the Medicines Optimisation strategy
• Handle function specific information, which may be sensitive, complex or confidential and appropriately recording, transferring and/or coordinating such information in accordance with the Data Protection Act; Caldicott Guidelines and the Confidentiality Code of Conduct
• To be responsible for the organisation, planning and of own workload to meet set deadlines
• To utilise GP practice clinical systems to conduct prescribing audits
• 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 assist in the monitoring of prescribing expenditure at individual practice level and propose changes to ensure containment within identified resource
• To undertake learning and development to ensure the required knowledge and skills for practice based work
• To carry out other duties which are appropriate to the skills and competencies of the post holder and grade of the post as the priorities of the service change

General

The Post holder will:

• Develop a culture that promotes equality and values diversity. The post holder must be aware of and committed to the Equality and Diversity policies of the appointing PCN and comply with all the requirements of these policies and actively promote Equality and Diversity issues relevant to the post.
• Ensure the principles of openness, transparency and candour are observed and upheld in all working practices.
• The post holder will have, or acquire through training provided by the organisation, the appropriate level of safeguarding and knowledge, skills and practice required for the post and be aware of and comply with the organisations safeguarding protection policies and procedures.
• Ensure that any infection prevention and control issues are reported to the line manager/Infection Prevention and Control

Key working relationships

• Patients/care home residents registered with network practices
• PCN Clinical Pharmacists
• PCN Clinical Director
• GPs, nurses, pharmacists and other practice staff
• Other local practices Clinical Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians
• Community Nurses, Dietitians and other allied health professionals
• Care Home staff
• Community Pharmacists and support staff
• Hospital staff with responsibilities for prescribing and medicines optimisation
• Members of the Gloucestershire CCGs Medicines Optimisation team

Qualifications

Essential

• - Professional registration with GPhC
• - BTEC/NVQ level 3 or equivalent in pharmaceutical sciences
• - Evidence of continued professional development (CPD)

Desirable

• Ability to influence and persuade partners and stakeholders of the respective merits of different options, innovations, and new opportunties and challenges

Experience

Desirable

• - Experience of working as a qualified, registered Pharmacy Technician in primary care, community or hospital pharmacy

Attributes

Essential

• - Works effectively independently and as a member of a team
• - Flexible approach to meet service needs and ensure a stakeholder focused response
• - Self-motivated and proactive
• - Continued commitment to improve skills and ability in new areas of work
• - Able to undertake the demands of the post with reasonable adjustments if required
• - Independently mobile to be able to work across several sites and travel to meet with stakeholders
• - Adaptability, flexibility and ability to cope with uncertainty and change
• - Demonstrate ability to work in a busy environment; ability to deal with both urgent and important tasks and to prioritise effectively whilst also supporting others
• - Excellent time keeping and prioritisation skills

Knowledge and Understanding

Essential

• - Relevant advanced theoretical and practical knowledge of general practice and evidence based medicine
• - Good clinical pharmacy knowledge including terminology
• - Knowledge and understanding of pharmacy law and ethics and current legislation

Desirable

• - An appreciation of the NHS agenda and government targets
• - Awareness of systems to support management of patients in a primary care setting, delivering pharmaceutical input and support in the context of pathways of care and the business of the organisation(s)
• - Awareness of GP budget-management and funding systems to enable GP Clinical Pharmacist services to assist delivery of Federation and NHS priorities and requirements for financial balance and quality
• - An appreciation of the nature of primary care prescribing, concepts of rational prescribing and strategies for the improvement of prescribing

Skills and Competencies

Essential

• - Computer literate with an ability to use the required GP clinical systems (desirable) and Microsoft office packages (essential)
• - Attention to detail, able to work accurately, identifying errors quickly and easily
• - Able to effectively manage allocated resources
• - A planned and organised approach with an ability to prioritise own workload to meet strict deadlines
• - Excellent verbal and written communication skills with team members, patients, carers, and other healthcare professionals. Whilst recognising peoples needs for alternative methods of communication
• - An excellent understanding of data protection and confidentiality issues

Desirable

• - Understand the aims of current healthcare policy and appreciate the implications of this for the Clinical Pharmacy in General Practice within a Primary Care Network
• - Able to analyse and interpret prescribing data
• - Able to think analytically; anticipating obstacles and thinking ahead; using analytical techniques to draw logical solutions to problems
• - Influencing and negotiating skills

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).