Pharmacy Technician in Ilford

Our mission in Redbridge is to strengthen, develop and support local general practice, to enable the delivery of high-quality care to local people. We are in the fortunate position where 4 of the 5 Primary Care Networks (PCNs) in Redbridge are working together as part of the Redbridge-wide GP federation Healthbridge Direct. We are now at the start of an exciting journey of building a team of over 100 additional clinical roles to support and enable the delivery of services within each of our 4 PCNs.

We are building teams within and across the PCNs to enable peer support and team working both within and across professions. We have the infrastructure, the relationships and the potential to create a team that will make a significant difference to GP practices, to outcomes for local populations, and to individual lives for patients across Redbridge.

Main duties of the job:

• To undertake medicines reconciliation in accordance with practice protocols and to update patients' medical records/prescribing accordingly.
• To support the achievement of the prescribing Quality and Outcomes Framework targets and other clinical targets.
• Work with the PCN multi-disciplinary team to ensure efficient medicines optimisation, including implementing efficient ordering and return processes, and reducing wastage.
• Supervise practice reception teams in sorting and streaming general prescription requests, allowing GPs and clinical pharmacists to review the more clinically complex requests.
• Provide leadership for medicines optimisation 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.
• Provide training and support on the legal, safe and secure handling of medicines, including the implementation of the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS).
• Develop 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.

The post holder will:

• Support the role of PCN Clinical Pharmacists in the delivery of clinical pharmacy services.
• Perform medicines improvement work to maximise safe, cost-effective best practice in prescribing under the supervision of the GP or Clinical Pharmacist.
• Assist with medication safety monitoring systems (e.g. high-risk drugs).
• Liaise with clinicians and administrative staff to resolve medicine-related queries.
• Monitor practice prescribing and adherence to practice, local and national prescribing policies.
• Support patients managing long-term conditions by providing health promotion and lifestyle advice.
• Improve service and quality through mechanisms such as audits.

Operational Support:

• Support the Clinical Pharmacists in Structured Medication Reviews e.g. organise necessary monitoring tests before SMR.
• Undertake patient-supporting roles to ensure effective medicines use through shared decision-making.
• Support medicine reconciliation of patients whose care is transferred back into primary care in a timely and effective manner liaising with patients and other providers to ensure patients receive appropriate medication.
• Carry out medicines optimisation tasks including effective medicine administration, supporting medication reviews and medicines reconciliation post-discharge and other transfers of care.
• Assist with the development and implementation of systems to ensure safe and effective monitoring of high-risk medication.
• Support initiatives for antimicrobial stewardship to reduce inappropriate antibiotic prescribing.
• Assist Clinical Pharmacists with any searches, data collection, medicine safety tasks.
• Work with the pharmacy team to develop safe, effective and efficient systems for repeat prescribing.
• Increase uptake of Electronic Repeat Dispensing.
• Support the PCN to deliver on QIPP agenda, QOF and locally commissioned enhanced services.
• Review and analyse prescribing data across the network using available tools producing reports and feedback for practices.
• Undertake, participate and share outcomes of clinical audits to facilitate improvement.
• Implement changes to medication that result from CAS/MHRA alerts, product withdrawal and other local/national guidance.

Person Specification:

Qualifications:

• Essential: Registered with the GPhC as a Pharmacy Technician, Evidence of CPD.
• Desirable: Medicines reconciliation Certificate or equivalent.

Experience:

• Essential: Experience of prescribing/clinical systems such as SystmOne, EMIS Web, Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written, Good IT skills, Good organisational skills, Ability to work under pressure in a busy environment, Ability to work as part of a team, Motivational & negotiation skills, Time management skills, Ability to plan, prioritise and organise workload, Continued commitment to improve skills and ability in new areas of work, Self-motivated, able to work collaboratively and independently, Understanding of clinical governance and risk management.
• Desirable: Recent previous experience within comparable role in General Practice, Previous experience working within a patient-facing role, People management, Teaching skills, Knowledge of General Practice, Awareness of Medicines Management agenda, Knowledge of audit and research.

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. Applicants must have current UK professional registration.