Pharmacy Technician (Primary Care)

Job responsibilities

PHARMACY TECHNICIAN

PRIMARY CARE

Redcar Coastal Primary Care Network

JOB DESCRIPTION

SALARY GRADE/HOURLY RATE: Depending on experience up to £16.50

CONTRACTED HOURS: Full/Part time

RESPONSIBLE TO: PCN Manager

ACCOUNTABLE TO: PCN Clinical Director

BASE: The Green House Surgery (cross site working may be required)

Role description

GP Practice Pharmacy Technicians, work within a multidisciplinary team of healthcare professionals, based within a GP practice, and support the delivery of safe, effective and efficient systems for medicines optimisation, repeat prescribing, reducing medicine waste and maximising patient outcomes.

The pharmacy technician will play an important role, complementing clinical pharmacists, community pharmacists and other members of the PCN multi-disciplinary team, working under supervision of the PCN Pharmacist to ensure effective and efficient use of medicines. Pharmacy technicians core role responsibilities will cover clinical, and technical and administrative categories.

The purpose of the role is to lead improvements to maximise safe, cost-effective best practice in prescribing to improve the quality of patient care. The post holder will help patients to get the best from their medicines by switching medications to agreed and approved protocols, improving repeat prescribing processes, including promotion of repeat dispensing and online ordering, minimising clinical risk, and aiming to reduce wasted medicines.

In addition, the post holder will be responsible for encouraging the development of better understanding of the principles of medicines optimisation throughout the practice teams and promoting good practice in line with therapeutic developments. This will involve assisting the PCN in achieving national requirements, NICE implementation, and utilisation of medicines optimisation initiatives.

Key Duties

Key duties include but not limited to:

• You will work as part of the multi-disciplinary team to support member practices with medicines optimisation.
• Support the role of PCN clinical pharmacists in the delivery of clinical pharmacy services including processing discharge/clinic letters from secondary care
• Perform medicines improvement work to maximise safe, cost-effective best practice in prescribing under the supervision of the clinical pharmacists
• Assist with medication safety monitoring systems (e.g. high-risk drugs)
• Liaise with clinicians, administrative staff and local Community Phamacists to resolve medicine-related queries
• Monitor practice prescribing and adherence to the PCNs policies, included but not limited to any other local and national prescribing policies and guidelines.
• Improve service and quality through mechanisms such as audits.
• Support the clinical pharmacists in Structured Medication Reviews.
• Support the work required as a Primary Care Network related to the Impact and Investment Fund.
• Contribute to the provision of safe and effective medicines management & optimisation services.
• Undertake medicines reconciliation in line with practice protocols and standard operating procedures to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of prescriptions and repeat prescriptions.
• Respond to patients questions both face to face and over the phone; referring problems or queries to the pharmacist.
• Participate in patient reviews and updating of patient records via clinics in the practice, domiciliary visits and in nursing and residential care homes.
• Check the accuracy of medicines for prescriptions.
• Participate in medication audits.
• Provide advice and information to GPs, staff and patients to support the improvement of prescribing safety, quality, cost-effectiveness and the appropriate use of medicines to get the best outcomes for patients.
• Assist in the monitoring and management of prescribing budgets and the preparation of evidence-based resources and information that support cost-effective prescribing.
• Contribute to all aspects of the day-to-day management of the working environment including communication, data accuracy and management, keeping practice areas tidy and helping to achieve a supportive, positive culture across the practice team.
• Support and promote a safe working environment in accordance with Health & Safety and Infection Control policies.
• Respect and protect patient confidentiality and information.
• Keep up to date with professional responsibilities and CPD requirements.
• Supervise and train other practice staff such as Prescribing Clerks.

Location of work

As a GP Practice pharmacy technician, you will be based in one practice but may, from time to time be required to work across various practices in the primary care network. You could be involved in, taking medication histories from patients, reviewing medicines, providing advice to patients about how to make the most of their medicines and giving advice on different treatment options. Your role will support the relationships between Secondary Care, Community Pharmacy, patients, and other pharmacy services.

Many pharmacy technicians work in primary care roles in general practice and care homes. These roles involve reviewing and recording the medication the patients should be taking, ensuring sufficient supplies, administering medicines, and counselling patients to support their understanding on how to use their medicines safely.

Qualifications

You are expected to have the equivalent of four GCSEs at Grade C and above, including Mathematics, English Language, science and one other subject and be a qualified and registered Pharmacy Technician with the GPhC. Completion of the Primary Care Educational Pathway would be preferred.

Pharmacy technicians must be able to communicate effectively with the wider healthcare team, patients, and the public, whilst ensuring and maintaining confidentiality and privacy.

You may be required to undertake additional post-registration training / qualifications.

Experience

Essential

• Experience of prescribing/clinical systems such as SystmOne, EMIS Web

Desirable

• Recent previous experience within comparable role in General Practice
• Previous experience working within a patient facing role.

Skills/Knowledge

Essential

• 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.
• Teaching skills

Desirable

• People management

Qualifications

Essential

• Qualified and registered with the GPhC as a Pharmacy Technician
• Evidence of CPD

Desirable

• Medicines reconciliation Certificate or equivalent
• Primary Care Pharmacy Educational Pathway (PCPEP)

Qualities/Attributes

Essential

• Continued commitment to improve skills and ability in new areas of work.
• Understanding of clinical governance and risk management
• Knowledge of audit and research.
• Self-motivated, able to work collaboratively and independently.

Desirable

• Awareness of Medicines Management agenda

Other

Essential

• Flexible approach to work, with the ability to travel between sites and undertake domiciliary visits as required
• Clean/valid driving licence

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).