Pharmacy Technician

Job summary

We are looking for a skilled and reliable Pharmacy Technician to join our supportive and friendly General Practice team.

Our emphasis is on keeping prescribing safe, accurate and efficient, and you will play an important role in supporting the team.

You will work as part of our clinical pharmacy team with our pharmacist and pharmacy technicians.

The role involves working alongside our GPs, nurses and administrative staff, where everyone works together and communication is open and respectful.

The post is for 26.5 hours per week.

The role would suit someone who enjoys being part of a team, has an excellent eye for detail, takes pride in high quality work and is committed to safe and consistent patient care.

Main duties of the job

• To work alongside the practice pharmacist to maximise safe, effective and efficient systems to ensure best practice prescribing.
• To help patients get the best from their medicines through medicines reconciliation after discharge and on other transfers of care, medication use reviews, identification of patients suitable for electronic repeat dispensing, promotion of online ordering, reducing waste, providing assurance of monitoring of high‑risk drugs, and handling of prescription queries within their areas of competence.
• To support the training of practice medicines coordinators to develop effective pharmacy administration within the practice, especially with regard to repeat prescribing systems and processes.
• To encourage the development of a better understanding of the principles of medicines optimisation throughout the practice team and promote good practice in line with therapeutic developments.

Responsibilities

• To support the practice pharmacist in ensuring safe and best practice prescribing.
• To undertake medicines reconciliation in accordance with practice protocols and update patient records accordingly, including new care‑home patients and synchronisation of medicines for transfer of care between settings.
• To improve prescribing processes and support the development and implementation of prescribing policies and guidance.
• To support the practice pharmacist to provide medication reviews and patient information in different formats as required according to individual needs.
• To promote electronic repeat dispensing (e RD) and online ordering.
• To provide advice to GPs, staff and patients regarding changes to prescribing to support the improvement of prescribing safety, quality and cost effectiveness.
• To deliver training and support the development of practice‑based medicines coordinators to improve coordination and effective pharmacy administration within the practice.
• To support the practice reception team in streamlining prescription queries, allowing the practice pharmacist to review more complex requests.
• To liaise with other pharmacy stakeholders, e. g. community pharmacy and hospital pharmacy teams.
• To manage shared care protocols, liaising with the practice pharmacist for complex patients.
• To ensure that all major MHRA drug alerts, where appropriate and within the level of competence, are acted upon within a suitable time frame and to advise on any medication changes that occur as a result.
• To support initiatives for antimicrobial stewardship to reduce inappropriate antibiotic prescribing.
• To utilise GP practice clinical systems to conduct prescribing audits and share the outcomes of clinical audits to facilitate improvement and changes in practice.
• To produce patient information leaflets and posters and run medicine awareness projects throughout the year.
• To use and maintain information systems and databases relevant to the position, including incident reporting, medicines optimisation, prescribing data, cost savings and patient outcomes.
• To support the practice to deliver on prescribing Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) targets.
• To be responsible for the organisation, planning and management of own workload to meet set deadlines.
• 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.
• To handle function‑specific information, which may be sensitive, complex or confidential, and record, transfer or coordinate such information in accordance with the Data Protection Act, Caldicott Guidelines and the Confidentiality Code of Conduct.

Person Specification

Qualifications (essential)

• Professional registration with the GPh C.
• BTEC/NVQ level 3 or equivalent in pharmaceutical sciences.
• Enrolled in, undertaking or qualified from an approved training pathway such as the Primary Care Pharmacy Educational Pathway (PCPEP) or Medicines Optimisation in Care Homes (MOCH).
• Evidence of continued professional development (CPD).

Experience (essential)

• Experience of working as a qualified, registered pharmacy technician in primary care, community or hospital pharmacy.
• Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and requires a Disclosure and Barring Service check for any previous criminal convictions.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require Skilled Worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration.

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