Centralised Pharmacy Technician

Job responsibilities

Main Responsibilities

This will be a developing role and will include, but is not limited to, the following responsibilities:

Prescription Query Management

Act as the primary centralised point of contact for prescription queries from patients, community pharmacies, and healthcare professionals.

Triage queries effectively based on clinical urgency and complexity, resolving routine technical issues independently within scope of competence.

Review patient monitoring compliance (e.g., blood tests, BP readings) prior to processing repeat prescription requests.

Maintain a comprehensive query log, ensuring 95% of queries are responded to within 24 hours to maintain service continuity.

Escalate complex clinical concerns or urgent safety issues to the Clinical Pharmacist or Duty GP in line with agreed protocols.

Discharge Medicines Reconciliation

Monitor the centralised Docman workflow daily for incoming hospital discharge summaries and clinic letters.

Conduct initial triage of discharge summaries, prioritising based on clinical urgency.

Perform accurate medicines reconciliation for routine discharges, updating patient records with medication changes (starts, stops, dosage amendments) under the supervision of the Clinical Pharmacist.

Identify and flag potential duplicate therapies, drug interactions, or prescribing errors.

Coordinate necessary follow-up actions, such as booking blood test appointments for new medication monitoring.

Liaise with patients to explain medication changes and ensure understanding, improving adherence and safety.

Repeat Prescription Processing

Process repeat prescription requests for high-risk medicines in accordance with the practices repeat prescribing policy.

Verify that all necessary monitoring (e.g., blood results) is up to date and has been reviewed by a clinician.

Prepare prescriptions for final clinical sign-off by the Clinical Pharmacist or GP.

Proactively coordinate monitoring appointments for patients with overdue tests, issuing short-term supplies where appropriate to ensure continuity of care.

Ensure a 72-hour turnaround time for all repeat prescription requests processed by the central team.

QOF Data Management

Support in the monthly running of Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) searches for medicines-related indicators.

Generate and validate recall lists for patients requiring medication reviews or chronic disease monitoring.

Cross-reference recall lists with overdue blood tests to coordinate appointments efficiently, minimising patient attendance.

Update clinical systems and monitoring databases with scheduled tests and outcomes to ensure accurate data capture.

Track QOF achievement progress against organisational trajectories and distribute actionable recall lists to practice administrative teams.

Enhanced Services Administrative Support

Generate eligible patient lists for Enhanced Services (e.g., flu vaccinations, NHS Health Checks, DOAC monitoring).

Support practice reception teams with appointment coordination to maximise service uptake.

Perform accurate data entry for services delivered (e.g., DOAC monitoring review) and generate progress reports for the management team.

Coordinate follow-up actions, such as medication initiation protocols following NHS Health Checks.

Medicines Safety Audits

Conduct systematic, organisation-wide searches to identify patients affected by MHRA alerts or high-risk drug safety protocols.

Collect and analyse audit data regarding monitoring compliance and medication reviews.

Identify patients requiring immediate intervention (e.g., overdue monitoring, abnormal results) and escalate appropriately.

Contact patients to arrange overdue monitoring appointments and track the completion of audit actions.

Contribute to the preparation of audit reports and support quality improvement initiatives to enhance prescribing safety.

Docman Workflow Management

Monitor the centralised Docman workflow daily for all pharmacy-related correspondence.

Triage and allocate items based on urgency, processing routine administrative items independently.

Route complex clinical items to the Clinical Pharmacist for review.

Supervision

Support in supervision of the daily workload of the Prescription Clerks.

Undertake staff 1:1, appraisals, and report any concerns to the Centralised Team Lead.

To mentor, supervise and develop new and existing staff, ensuring participation in required training.

Promote Invicta Health organisational values and behaviour and ensure the Prescription Clerks work toward these and adhere to all policies and procedures.

Manage future Centralised Prescription Clerk roles daily and ensure cover in place for annual leave and sickness.

General Duties

To work collaboratively and professionally with colleagues across Invicta Health, building and maintaining relationships.

To contribute to the development of services, including processes, templates and principles.

To ensure that strict confidentiality is observed at all times, especially when dealing with personal information.

To take part in any statutory and mandatory training or other training and development programmes as requested.

Any other reasonable duties as directed by your line manager.

Due to the changing nature of Invicta Health, job descriptions will evolve and are therefore subject to periodic review.

Qualifications

Essential

• Current GPhC registration
• BTEC/NVQ level 3 or equivalent in pharmaceutical sciences.

Desirable

• Completion of the CPPE Primary care pharmacy education pathway (PCPEP)

Key Skills

Essential

• Understand the aims of current healthcare policy and appreciate the implications of this for Clinical Pharmacy in General Practice pilot sites
• Able to analyse and interpret prescribing data
• Has attention to detail, able to work accurately, identifying errors quickly and easily
• Able to effectively manage allocated resources
• Has a planned and organised approach with an ability to prioritise their own workload to meet strict deadlines
• Able to think analytically; anticipating obstacles and thinking ahead; using analytical techniques to draw logical solutions to problems
• Excellent communication skills, verbal and written, with the ability to adjust communication style and content to suit the audience
• Influencing and negotiating skills
• An excellent understanding of data protection and confidentiality issues

Experience

Essential

• Relevant advanced theoretical and practical knowledge of general practice and evidence- based medicine.
• Knowledge of the principles of medicines optimisation.
• An appreciation of the NHS agenda and government targets.
• Awareness of systems to support management of patients in a primary care setting, delivering pharmaceutical input and support in the context of pathways of care and the business of the organisation(s).
• Awareness of GP budget- management and funding systems to enable GP clinical pharmacist services to assist delivery of Federation and NHS priorities and requirements for financial balance and quality.
• Good clinical pharmacy knowledge including terminology.
• An appreciation of the nature of primary care prescribing, concepts of rational prescribing and strategies for the improvement of prescribing.
• Knowledge and understanding of pharmacy law and ethics and current legislation.

Desirable

• Experience within general practice, particularly working at a PCN/Hub level.

Personal Attributes

Essential

• Works effectively independently and as a member of a team
• Flexible approach to meet service needs and ensure a stakeholder focused response
• Continued commitment to improve skills and ability in new areas of work
• Able to undertake the demands of the post with reasonable adjustments if required
• Independently mobile to be able to work across several sites and travel to meet with stakeholders
• Self-motivated, able to work both independently and collaboratively and possess excellent communication and clinical skills

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).