Pharmacy Technician

Clinical responsibilities of the Pharmacy Technician:

• To support the pharmacist with medicines reconciliation in accordance with practice protocols and to update patients' medical records/prescribing accordingly.
• Undertaking patient-facing and patient-supporting roles to ensure effective medicines use through shared-decision making conversations with patients.
• Supporting the practice-based pharmacist to provide medication reviews and Structured Medication reviews.
• Supporting, as determined by the PCN, medication reviews and medicines reconciliation for new care home patients and synchronising medicines for patient transfers between care settings and linking with local community pharmacists.
• Taking a central role in the clinical aspects of shared care protocols and liaising with specialist pharmacists for more complex patients.
• To provide advice to GPs, staff, and patients in changes to prescribing to support the improvement of prescribing safety, quality, and cost-effectiveness.
• Supporting initiatives for antimicrobial stewardship to reduce inappropriate antibiotic prescribing.
• Assisting in the delivery of medicines optimisation and management incentive schemes and patient safety audits.
• To assist in the appropriate monitoring and management of prescribing budgets and to liaise with the medicines management team when required.
• To prepare evidence-based resources and information to support the implementation of rational cost-effective prescribing.
• Supporting 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.

Technical and Administrative responsibilities of the Pharmacy Technician:

• Working with the PCN multi-disciplinary team to ensure efficient medicines optimisation, including implementing efficient ordering and return processes, and reducing wastage.
• Supervising practice reception teams in sorting and streaming general prescription requests, so as to allow GPs and clinical pharmacists to review the more clinically complex requests.
• Providing 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.
• Providing training and support on the legal, safe, and secure handling of medicines, including the implementation of the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS).
• Developing 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.