Pharmacy Technician

Job description

Job responsibilities

Duties and Responsibilities

The following are the core responsibilities of the Pharmacy Technician. There may be, on occasion, a requirement to carry out other tasks, this will be dependent upon factors such as workload and staffing levels. The pharmacy technician will work within their scope of clinical practice

Key responsibilities

Work with the Senior Clinical Pharmacist, Pharmacists and Clinicians in accordance with agreed practice prescribing standard operating procedures.

Process repeat medication request, including conversion of acute requests to repeat medicines, changing quantities of medicines.

Issuing prescriptions in line with agreed clinical protocols and within competency.

Regular liaison with community and acute hospital pharmacists.

Provide advice and guidance to patients regarding medication optimisation and lifestyle e.g inhaler techniques.

Provide medication review services to patients via clinics in the practice, domiciliary visits and in residential and nursing homes, and to deliver pharmaceutical care plans that maximise cost-effective prescribing and improve the quality of patient care.

The support the achievement of the practices prescribing targets ie QOF, IIF and local incentive scheme.

Dealing with medication queries including acute medication requests, patient medication and prescription queries.

To update and maintain accurate patient medication records on the practice clinical system, including advice given and advice taken.

Liaise with primary and secondary care colleagues to ensure correct medicines are continued following the transfer of care.

To assist the Senior Clinical Pharmacist with data analysis of prescribing behaviour in line with NICE guidance and local clinical commissioning directives.

To assist with the development and review of medicine audits.

Provide a contact for patients and colleagues with medication queries.

Project work/prescribing initiatives under the support of the Pharmacist.

Conduct medication reconciliation following discharge from hospital, clinic visits and other transfers of care, to ensure that medication changers are safely implemented in a timely fashion.

To link with hospital and community pharmacy colleagues to address discrepancies, supply issues and queries within competency.

Liaise with wider health care team including primary care staff, community nurses and care home staff with medication queries.

To undertake regular audits.

To support the safe and effective repeat prescribing of high risk medicines, ensuring that regular monitoring as per local/shared care guidance is taking place.

Supporting patients to manage their medicines, for example, synchronisation of medications, reviewing patients suitability for monitored dosage systems, and setting up electronic repeat dispensing.

To document interventions made to patients medications in their health care records to ensure there is a clear audit trail and changes are clearly accounted for.

To promote cost effective, safe, evidence based prescribing in accordance with local formulary, medication optimisation strategy and national guidance.

Attend local meetings seeking to improve access to medicines or repeat prescribing processes.

Ensure patients and their families / carers views are taken into account in every stage of the decision making process.

Seek advice from clinical lead as appropriate.

Development and Improvement

Contribute to the development of efficient and effective services

Performance and Quality

Liaise with reception, admin, and clinical teams to ensure effective care is delivered

Communications

Communicate effectively by competent use of email, telephone, written, and face-to-face communication

Ensure timely and accurate handling of messages/tasks, ensuring all unresolved or urgent matters are prioritised

The post holder has access to confidential patient information and will, therefore need to have a working knowledge and adhere to all aspects of information governance, data protection and confidentiality policies. Ensure that patient confidentiality is maintained at all times

Internal Relationships

The post holder will work with little supervision, prioritising and managing their own workload on a day-to-day basis

General

To ensure ongoing compliance with the CQCs (Care Quality Commission) essential standards of quality and safety

To comply with all relevant Health and Safety regulations and policy

To comply with and actively promote NCPCs Equality and Diversity Policy

To support sustainability practices and recognise the shared responsibility of carrying out duties in a resource efficient way

To undertake any other duties as appropriate

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Must be registered with General Pharmaceutical Council
• Level 3 QCF Diploma in Pharmaceutical Science or GPhC accredited equivalent prior to July 2011 plus BTEC pharmacy services underpinning knowledge

Desirable

• National Certificate or recognised equivalents Accuracy Checking Certificate

Skills and abilities

Essential

• Ability to prioritise, organise and carry out own work effectively and within agreed timescales and deadlines
• Ability to work as part of a multi-disciplinary team
• Ability to work quickly and accurately
• Excellent concentration skills, demonstrating undivided attention to detail
• Excellent communication and inter-personal skills

Core values and personal attributes

Essential

• Strong commitment to the vision and values of NCPC
• Genuine interest in and commitment to the needs of the local community
• Commitment to the development of people and services, as required by NCPC
• Desire to achieve and maintain high standards
• Able to cope with sensitive nature of work, with a patient and calm approach
• Show complete reliability in all matters and is honest and trustworthy
• Possess a real desire to provide quality service to patients

Experience

Essential

• Must be registered with General Pharmaceutical Council
• Min 2 years post qualification experience

Desirable

• Use of EMIS and Ardens clinical systems

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).

Employer details

Employer name

Ringmead Medical Practice

Address

Birch Hill Medical Centre

Leppington

Bracknell

Berkshire

RG12 7WW

Employer's website

https://www.ringmeadmedicalpractice.org.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)