Job summary
Alder Hey Children's Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is a stand alone paediatric hospital located on the outskirts of Liverpool with a national reputation for excellence. A brilliant team of pharmacist and technicians provide pharmacy services to a wide range of paediatric surgical and medical specialties. The pharmacy team are dynamic, innovative, caring, compassionate and work well together.
We have an exciting opportunity for an experienced GPhC registered Pharmacy Technician to take up a full time position of Senior Pharmacy Technician for Purchasing and IT Systems . You will join our committed and friendly team to support the delivery of a high quality paediatric medicines service to our patients and support the management and monitoring of pharmacy IT systems.
Main duties of the job
The Senior Pharmacy Technician for Pharmacy Purchasing and IT systems is responsible for:
- Ensuring compliance with standing financial instructions and national standards for NHS pharmaceutical procurement services
- Organising the pharmacy procurement and homecare team
- The maintenance and development of IT systems in the pharmacy department
- In managing the pharmacy stock control system:
- Acting as a role model for the use and development of Information Technology and supports the development and implementation of IT systems to ensure the best possible patient care.
- Helping to develop specialist, technical purchasing services ensuring efficient and cost-effective procurement of medicines for the Trust, including negotiating and monitoring contracts, as appropriate.
About us
We are looking for a highly self-motivated technician who leads by example, is forward thinking, works well under pressure, uses their own initiative and has excellent communication and organisational skills.
Candidates must have experience working in pharmacy procurement and knowledge of pharmacy IT systems. The successful candidate will be passionate about delivery of a patient centred, quality focused medicines procurement service.
Whilst experience working in a paediatric hospital is preferable this is not essential as full training will be given. This is a full-time permanent role.
If you are looking for an exciting opportunity to develop your leadership skills and wish to gain experience working in a senior procurement role then we would welcome your application. The successful candidate will be required to work flexibly to support the procurement team and wider pharmacy service.
The Trust and Pharmacy Team values and champions inclusivity and diversity. Informal visits and enquiries are fully supported and encouraged.
For more information please contact Jennie McGuinness, Pharmacy Purchasing and IT Systems Manager (jennie.mcguinness@alderhey.nhs.uk) OR Andrea Leatherbarrow, Deputy Chief Pharmacist for Operations (andrea.leatherbarrow@alderhey.nhs.uk)
Job description
Job responsibilities
Communication
- Answer queries of a complex technical nature in relation to drug availability, formulation and supply.
- Provide specialist technical advice on the procurement of medicines for the Trust.
- Communicate with a wide range of healthcare professionals, pharmacy staff, wholesalers and the public on a wide range of issues in relation to medicines. This may include advice, guidance, and requirements,
- Plan and organise regular meetings to update senior staff on EPACT FP10 (HP) expenditure and usage in the absence of the Pharmacy Purchasing and IT Systems Manager
- Help maintain an effective working relationship with other key departments within the Trust to ensure efficient service provision by the procurement team.
- Help liaise with the key IT leads within the Trust (including the Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration team) and the Head of Pharmacy to help develop and support the IT strategy for the pharmacy department.
- Actively participate in Pharmacy Team Leaders meetings if needed
- Provide effective feedback to purchasing staff from management meetings on behalf of the Pharmacy Purchasing and IT Systems Manager as appropriate.
- Attend the pharmacy computer system user group at regional and national level as required.
- To liaise with relevant pharmacy Trust staff and external bodies where necessary on IT issues.
- To provide technical advice to pharmacy staff in the sourcing, procurement and supply of unlicensed Medicines in line with National Guidance
- To help network with other Trust pharmacy departments to share best practice
- To contribute pro-actively to regular weekly team meetings to encourage staff ideas, service improvements and patient safety.
Analytical Skills
- Help ensure statistical information and or financial information around contracts and invoices are supplied as required
- To support the Procurement Pharmacist in sourcing unlicensed drugs; ensuring regional guidelines in relation to quarantining and QC record storage are adhered to.
- Support the Procurement Pharmacist and Senior Technician for Pharmacy Procurement and IT Systems in the preparation of Technical Purchasing Specifications for unlicensed medicines.
- To help ensure the maintenance and development of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and E-Commerce for the automated purchasing of goods, their receipt and invoicing, respectively.
- Responsible for investigation of any unusual drug issues on a monthly basis if anomalies are found and report to the Head of Pharmacy/Chief Pharmacist as appropriate, when required.
- To assist with reporting on any current and future (horizon scanning) changes in prescribing practice and report on how this change in practice may affect the drug budget.
- Help ensure the recording of any drug defects (and sending relevant samples and information to the regional Quality Control department) and follow up these defects through to outcomes ensuring appropriate action to ensure patient safety and quality of medicines supplied.
- To help participate in new drug risk assessments within the pharmacy to assist in the reduction of pharmacy errors.
- To help ensure that the integrity of the pharmacy drug file is maintained in all relevant pharmacy and Trust IT systems. To help ensure new drugs and cost centres are added to the pharmacy computer system ensuring information is accurate and relevant.
- To help liaise with the Trust Information team in response to any Freedom of Information requests that require analysing of information from Pharmacy Systems
Planning and organising skills
- To help plan and organise the development of the Trust pharmacy procurement service
- To liaise with the Trust IT team and external support help desks to help resolve any issues incurred by pharmacy users with any associated IT systems.
- To successfully implement any IT projects including, for example, system upgrades, implementation of new IT systems and processes.
- To work with the Head of Pharmacy to ensure IT Business Continuity Plans (BCPs) and IT disaster recovery protocols are in place. Ensure that these plans are followed where necessary so that no relevant data is lost and so that the department can function in the event of an IT failure.
- All relevant end of month and end of year processes and associated reports to be completed in a timely manner
- Maintain Crystal Reports Distributor for monthly scheduled reports: ensure current reports are kept up to date and add new reports as required.
- Manage and maintain IT aspects of automated dispensing systems for pharmacy systems and
- To support the Pharmacy Purchasing and IT Systems Manager in with the Homecare service, ensuring KPIs are completed and monitored, SLAs are renewed, reviewed and maintained and that any relevant audits are completed in a timely manner
- To help oversee the day to day workload, maintaining adequate staffing levels at any time
Physical skills
- To train current staff on the current pharmacy systems and any new systems that are installed
- To be able to attend study days relevant to this position.
- To sign for receipt of controlled drugs in line with local policies and procedure
Responsibility for patient/client care
- Provide specialist advice to meet the needs of the patient referring to a pharmacist where necessary
- To deal in handling any complaints in relation to all aspects of drug procurement, to include service provision, drug defects etc.
- To be responsible for the recording of drug defects and dissemination of information in relation to Medicines Control Agency Drug Alerts.
- To participate in responding to incidents; meet with staff to discuss, providing support with reflection tools and produce action plans where necessary.
- To pro-actively listen to and investigate any complaints received into the Purchasing team and provide information and findings to Head of Pharmacy, the PALs team, and the wider Trust as required
Responsibility for policy/service development
To support the Pharmacy Purchasing and IT Systems Manager:
- in the preparation, maintenance and audit of all policies and procedures relating to the procurement of pharmaceuticals to include unlicensed medicines and to ensure that other Trust policies are implemented where appropriate.
- in preparation, maintenance and audit of all policies and procedures relating to the Pharmacy IT systems and processes.
- In having an oversight of the development of drug related services by external homecare providers
- In managing and developing IT systems within the pharmacy department (not including Meditech) in line with the overall IT strategy for the Trust
- in implementing the Trust Clinical Governance agenda within the department in relation to resource effectiveness, users views, professional development and Risk Management.
- Assists the Chief Pharmacist in the implementation of recommendations from audits or external peer reviews on IT issues.
- To support the technical team in managing the Trust temperature monitoring system and to escalate any issues as necessary.
Responsibility for financial and physical resources
- To ensure that the purchase of pharmaceuticals within the Trust is efficient, cost effective and to be pro-active in identifying any Cost Improvement Programme opportunities (CIPs).
- To support the development and maintenance of a reporting mechanism for cost and volume information to the Trust and within the pharmacy service
- To be an authorised signatory for medicine orders up to a value of £5000.
- To help ensure the pharmacy asset register is kept up to date through an annual review
- To help co-ordinate and supervise the annual stock take of all medicines in Pharmacy Stores
Responsibility for human resources
- Support the recruitment and management of pharmacy procurement and stores staff. This will include undertaking Personal Development Plans with staff, managing sickness absence and participating in disciplinary reviews with the Head of Pharmacy
- Support the management of the Pharmacy Purchasing support staff in the technical aspects of the Pharmacy Procurement Service.
- To help ensure that all staff in the purchasing department receive the appropriate training, induction and development, appropriate to their roles.
- To help ensure that all Health & Safety requirements for the Purchasing area are met in conjunction with the Clinical Services Manager and Head of Pharmacy. Help ensure that all risk assessments are actioned and completed by assessors in this area, referring to the Senior Management Team where necessary.
- To help ensure purchasing technical & support staff receive training as appropriate by outside bodies.
- To help ensure purchasing technical and support staff complete Trust mandatory training.
- To help resolve any issues that arise over adequate staffing levels/skill mix within the Procurement team
- To help support staff to ensure that their wellbeing is maintained, including referral to Occupational Health and the Alder Centre where necessary.
- To help review, authorise and monitor technical/support staff annual leave and flexitime, including appointment requests.
- To help review any flexible working requests and present to Senior Management Team for consideration/authorisation.
- To help support the development of extended roles for technical and support staff and to keep up to date with local and national NHS initiatives.
Responsibility for information resources
- Help ensure appropriate medicines management data and accurate reports are provided to the Pharmacy team and colleagues within the Trust as required. Such reports may, for example relate to medicine usage, drug spend, contract costs
- Advise of any breaches in Security, Data protection or any Trust IT policies and deal with promptly.
- To help ensure Caldicott principles are followed with patient identifiable data
Responsibility for research and development
- To be authorised to receive and confirm receipt of clinical trial medication following GCP guidance and ensure that relevant records/information is documented and stored
.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Communication
- Answer queries of a complex technical nature in relation to drug availability, formulation and supply.
- Provide specialist technical advice on the procurement of medicines for the Trust.
- Communicate with a wide range of healthcare professionals, pharmacy staff, wholesalers and the public on a wide range of issues in relation to medicines. This may include advice, guidance, and requirements,
- Plan and organise regular meetings to update senior staff on EPACT FP10 (HP) expenditure and usage in the absence of the Pharmacy Purchasing and IT Systems Manager
- Help maintain an effective working relationship with other key departments within the Trust to ensure efficient service provision by the procurement team.
- Help liaise with the key IT leads within the Trust (including the Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration team) and the Head of Pharmacy to help develop and support the IT strategy for the pharmacy department.
- Actively participate in Pharmacy Team Leaders meetings if needed
- Provide effective feedback to purchasing staff from management meetings on behalf of the Pharmacy Purchasing and IT Systems Manager as appropriate.
- Attend the pharmacy computer system user group at regional and national level as required.
- To liaise with relevant pharmacy Trust staff and external bodies where necessary on IT issues.
- To provide technical advice to pharmacy staff in the sourcing, procurement and supply of unlicensed Medicines in line with National Guidance
- To help network with other Trust pharmacy departments to share best practice
- To contribute pro-actively to regular weekly team meetings to encourage staff ideas, service improvements and patient safety.
Analytical Skills
- Help ensure statistical information and or financial information around contracts and invoices are supplied as required
- To support the Procurement Pharmacist in sourcing unlicensed drugs; ensuring regional guidelines in relation to quarantining and QC record storage are adhered to.
- Support the Procurement Pharmacist and Senior Technician for Pharmacy Procurement and IT Systems in the preparation of Technical Purchasing Specifications for unlicensed medicines.
- To help ensure the maintenance and development of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and E-Commerce for the automated purchasing of goods, their receipt and invoicing, respectively.
- Responsible for investigation of any unusual drug issues on a monthly basis if anomalies are found and report to the Head of Pharmacy/Chief Pharmacist as appropriate, when required.
- To assist with reporting on any current and future (horizon scanning) changes in prescribing practice and report on how this change in practice may affect the drug budget.
- Help ensure the recording of any drug defects (and sending relevant samples and information to the regional Quality Control department) and follow up these defects through to outcomes ensuring appropriate action to ensure patient safety and quality of medicines supplied.
- To help participate in new drug risk assessments within the pharmacy to assist in the reduction of pharmacy errors.
- To help ensure that the integrity of the pharmacy drug file is maintained in all relevant pharmacy and Trust IT systems. To help ensure new drugs and cost centres are added to the pharmacy computer system ensuring information is accurate and relevant.
- To help liaise with the Trust Information team in response to any Freedom of Information requests that require analysing of information from Pharmacy Systems
Planning and organising skills
- To help plan and organise the development of the Trust pharmacy procurement service
- To liaise with the Trust IT team and external support help desks to help resolve any issues incurred by pharmacy users with any associated IT systems.
- To successfully implement any IT projects including, for example, system upgrades, implementation of new IT systems and processes.
- To work with the Head of Pharmacy to ensure IT Business Continuity Plans (BCPs) and IT disaster recovery protocols are in place. Ensure that these plans are followed where necessary so that no relevant data is lost and so that the department can function in the event of an IT failure.
- All relevant end of month and end of year processes and associated reports to be completed in a timely manner
- Maintain Crystal Reports Distributor for monthly scheduled reports: ensure current reports are kept up to date and add new reports as required.
- Manage and maintain IT aspects of automated dispensing systems for pharmacy systems and
- To support the Pharmacy Purchasing and IT Systems Manager in with the Homecare service, ensuring KPIs are completed and monitored, SLAs are renewed, reviewed and maintained and that any relevant audits are completed in a timely manner
- To help oversee the day to day workload, maintaining adequate staffing levels at any time
Physical skills
- To train current staff on the current pharmacy systems and any new systems that are installed
- To be able to attend study days relevant to this position.
- To sign for receipt of controlled drugs in line with local policies and procedure
Responsibility for patient/client care
- Provide specialist advice to meet the needs of the patient referring to a pharmacist where necessary
- To deal in handling any complaints in relation to all aspects of drug procurement, to include service provision, drug defects etc.
- To be responsible for the recording of drug defects and dissemination of information in relation to Medicines Control Agency Drug Alerts.
- To participate in responding to incidents; meet with staff to discuss, providing support with reflection tools and produce action plans where necessary.
- To pro-actively listen to and investigate any complaints received into the Purchasing team and provide information and findings to Head of Pharmacy, the PALs team, and the wider Trust as required
Responsibility for policy/service development
To support the Pharmacy Purchasing and IT Systems Manager:
- in the preparation, maintenance and audit of all policies and procedures relating to the procurement of pharmaceuticals to include unlicensed medicines and to ensure that other Trust policies are implemented where appropriate.
- in preparation, maintenance and audit of all policies and procedures relating to the Pharmacy IT systems and processes.
- In having an oversight of the development of drug related services by external homecare providers
- In managing and developing IT systems within the pharmacy department (not including Meditech) in line with the overall IT strategy for the Trust
- in implementing the Trust Clinical Governance agenda within the department in relation to resource effectiveness, users views, professional development and Risk Management.
- Assists the Chief Pharmacist in the implementation of recommendations from audits or external peer reviews on IT issues.
- To support the technical team in managing the Trust temperature monitoring system and to escalate any issues as necessary.
Responsibility for financial and physical resources
- To ensure that the purchase of pharmaceuticals within the Trust is efficient, cost effective and to be pro-active in identifying any Cost Improvement Programme opportunities (CIPs).
- To support the development and maintenance of a reporting mechanism for cost and volume information to the Trust and within the pharmacy service
- To be an authorised signatory for medicine orders up to a value of £5000.
- To help ensure the pharmacy asset register is kept up to date through an annual review
- To help co-ordinate and supervise the annual stock take of all medicines in Pharmacy Stores
Responsibility for human resources
- Support the recruitment and management of pharmacy procurement and stores staff. This will include undertaking Personal Development Plans with staff, managing sickness absence and participating in disciplinary reviews with the Head of Pharmacy
- Support the management of the Pharmacy Purchasing support staff in the technical aspects of the Pharmacy Procurement Service.
- To help ensure that all staff in the purchasing department receive the appropriate training, induction and development, appropriate to their roles.
- To help ensure that all Health & Safety requirements for the Purchasing area are met in conjunction with the Clinical Services Manager and Head of Pharmacy. Help ensure that all risk assessments are actioned and completed by assessors in this area, referring to the Senior Management Team where necessary.
- To help ensure purchasing technical & support staff receive training as appropriate by outside bodies.
- To help ensure purchasing technical and support staff complete Trust mandatory training.
- To help resolve any issues that arise over adequate staffing levels/skill mix within the Procurement team
- To help support staff to ensure that their wellbeing is maintained, including referral to Occupational Health and the Alder Centre where necessary.
- To help review, authorise and monitor technical/support staff annual leave and flexitime, including appointment requests.
- To help review any flexible working requests and present to Senior Management Team for consideration/authorisation.
- To help support the development of extended roles for technical and support staff and to keep up to date with local and national NHS initiatives.
Responsibility for information resources
- Help ensure appropriate medicines management data and accurate reports are provided to the Pharmacy team and colleagues within the Trust as required. Such reports may, for example relate to medicine usage, drug spend, contract costs
- Advise of any breaches in Security, Data protection or any Trust IT policies and deal with promptly.
- To help ensure Caldicott principles are followed with patient identifiable data
Responsibility for research and development
- To be authorised to receive and confirm receipt of clinical trial medication following GCP guidance and ensure that relevant records/information is documented and stored
.
Person Specification
education and training
Essential
- oRegistered Pharmacy Technician with GphC
Experience
Essential
- oMultidisciplinary team work
- oExtensive previous experience and knowledge of working in a hospital pharmacy environment
- oExtensive working knowledge of pharmacy IT systems
- oSystem Management, daily maintenance tasks and ongoing system development including managing upgrades to IT systems.
- oPrevious experience of leadership role in a hospital environment
Desirable
- oExperience of Paediatric Pharmacy
- oPrevious experience of completing department projects and audits
- oExperience of helping to implement new IT systems
Knowledge
Essential
- oPharmacy procurement / Homecare policies and processes
- oLegality and Best Practice with respect to the procurement of unlicensed medicines
- oPharmacy IT systems
Desirable
- oIT infrastructure requirements and servers.
Skills
Essential
- excellent leadership skills
- oExcellent written and oral communication skills
- oExcellent management/ people skills
- oAbility to work effectively within various teams
- oExcellent knowledge of IT programmes and packages to support role
- oAbility to extract data from the Pharmacy system using Crystal Reports
- oAdvanced working knowledge of Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word
personal attributes
Essential
- oAccurate and methodical - good attention to detail
- oCommitment to Continuous Professional Development
- oBe forward thinking and show an enthusiasm for developing service
Person Specification
education and training
Essential
- oRegistered Pharmacy Technician with GphC
Experience
Essential
- oMultidisciplinary team work
- oExtensive previous experience and knowledge of working in a hospital pharmacy environment
- oExtensive working knowledge of pharmacy IT systems
- oSystem Management, daily maintenance tasks and ongoing system development including managing upgrades to IT systems.
- oPrevious experience of leadership role in a hospital environment
Desirable
- oExperience of Paediatric Pharmacy
- oPrevious experience of completing department projects and audits
- oExperience of helping to implement new IT systems
Knowledge
Essential
- oPharmacy procurement / Homecare policies and processes
- oLegality and Best Practice with respect to the procurement of unlicensed medicines
- oPharmacy IT systems
Desirable
- oIT infrastructure requirements and servers.
Skills
Essential
- excellent leadership skills
- oExcellent written and oral communication skills
- oExcellent management/ people skills
- oAbility to work effectively within various teams
- oExcellent knowledge of IT programmes and packages to support role
- oAbility to extract data from the Pharmacy system using Crystal Reports
- oAdvanced working knowledge of Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word
personal attributes
Essential
- oAccurate and methodical - good attention to detail
- oCommitment to Continuous Professional Development
- oBe forward thinking and show an enthusiasm for developing service
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.
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
Additional information
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.
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
