Pharmacy Technician

Job responsibilities

The postholder will:

Manage and develop the technical staff and services within the designated area of responsibility

Manage medicines management/ technical service resource to provide a safe, timely and cost effective service

Ensuring the cost effective use of medications

As part of the pharmacy management team support the delivery of the annual plan and other strategic objectives

Provide service cover for other technical managers and when necessary carry out pharmacy technical duties of a routine nature

Barnsley:- Special responsibility for reporting on medicines management reviews, data extraction from EPACT, e-rostering support ,governance and Barnsley medicines supply

Calderdale & Kirklees :-,Ward based trustwide SOPs excluding clinical and near patient dispensing

Wakefield and Forensics:- Special responsibility for development of clinical technican service and near patient dispensing .

1.1Care/service/function provision:

Manage the day-to-day technical duties of the pharmacy staff providing services.

Manage the teams workload and workflow and ensure that staff are deployed to respond to changes in demand.

Manage the process of supplying and maintaining adequate supplies of medicines on wards and departments.

Work with the supplying pharmacy to ensure timely supply of medications, including liaising to find solutions to service issues and monitoring supply.

Develop, monitor and implement relevant Standard Operating Procedures/ Guidelines and ensure effective communication of procedural change(s).

Implement new and review existing working practices as part of ongoing service development.

Support the delivery of pharmacy service objectives as defined by Trust and National Policy, to meet clinical governance targets, develop patients care, improve clinical outcomes and ensure compliance with professional standards.

Carry out service development work and clinical projects to improve and develop services

Contribute to the review of existing systems and implementation of new procedures/ guidelines.

Ensure all errors are reported, corrected, recorded, and learnt from.

Ensure the safe operation and development of IT systems for the labeling and stock control of medicinal products.

Ensure medicine use is safe, legal and appropriate and with due regard for caution in SUI/interactions and all issues relating to patient safety.

Respond to any problems or feedback regarding the service provisions when identified by staff, patients and carers.

Observe and implement the regulations in respect of the Health and Safety at Work Act, COSHH and Data Protection Act for allocated locality.

Work with the Risk Manager to ensure the department complies with the appropriate Care Trust Health and Safety policies

1.2 Working as part of a Team:

Work with other members of the pharmacy team and ward staff to resolve medicines related problems and ensure the best service to patients and staff.

Identify and resolve, by referring to the prescriber, pharmacist or patients notes where necessary any concerns regarding a prescription.

Work with the clinical pharmacist to assess the patients concordance, identify patients requiring compliance aids and arrange provision of the necessary aids.

Support nursing staff by ensuring that all medicines self-administered by patients are presented and labeled in a form that provides all the information necessary for the patient to self administer without risk of error by:-

Re-use of patients own medicines

Issue of over-labeled medicines

Individually dispensed items from the pharmacy and to undertake ongoing evaluations of individual patients self-administration.

Take part in the weekend & Bank holiday rota at Trust dispensary.

Plan, prioritise and re-organise daily, weekly and monthly workloads in the face of changing and completing demands on time.

1.3 Managing Self:

Perform final accuracy check on dispensed items supplied against prescriptions or signed orders that have been clinically checked by a pharmacist and in accordance with the trust procedures.

Dispense prescriptions, including unlicensed drugs and clinical trials in accordance with the agreed safe systems of work practice.

Provide a medicines management service to the wards, including the taking of comprehensive medication histories on admission, assessing Patients Own Drugs (PODs), ensuring the required medicines are ordered and where appropriate other services such as one-stop dispensing.

Ensure the safe supply of clozapine by:-

• Ensuring the supply is covered by a valid blood result
• obtaining local blood results and inputting these on the clozapine monitoring system
• notification of blood monitoring frequencies

providing advice to medical and nursing staff re the same

Ensure each clinical area has the appropriate levels of medicine stocks and that this is reviewed every 6 months.

Follow Trust systems to ensure the correct storage and turnover of stock to maintain quality and potency.

Ensure clinical areas have the required systems in place to record the use and/or destruction of medicines.

Liaise with GPs, nursing homes, doctors, ward staff and other health care professions to ensure optimal pharmaceutical care for the patients.

Comply at all times with SWYFT Health and Safety policies, in particular by following agreed safe working procedures and reporting incidents using the Trusts Risk Incident Reporting System.

Support patients achieve optimal outcomes from their medicines by advising on the safe and effective use of their medicines and responding to any questions or concerns they may have.

Undertake Continuous Professional Development in order to ensure best practice and comply with requirements for entry on the GPhC pharmacy technician register.

Aattend any meetings or training deemed relevant to the role.

Report on Datix any clinical and non-clinical incidents.

Liaise with transport/ portering services to ensure the safe, efficient and timely collection/delivery of medicines and other such items

Participate in research and development projects involving the pharmacy services particularly those relating to technical services.

Ensure allocated ward areas have access to current medicines-related policies, procedures and guidelines.

Communicate effectively with all levels of staff, patients and carers both verbally and in writing.

Participate in any audits and other assurance processes to ensure appropriate standards of medicines management. Work in accordance with Trust procedure to re-use stock medicines where appropriate to reduce waste

Respond to enquiries and requests from staff, patients and carers in accordance with individual competence and departmental policy.

Adhere to the Medicines, Law and Ethics code of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain,

Take responsibility in agreement with his/her manager for his/her own personal development by ensuring that Continuous Professional Development remains a priority. Undertake all mandatory training required for the role.

1.4 Management Supervision and Support:

Manage the allocated technicians and assistants, providing support, direction and effective supervision of the technicians and assistants in the performance of all duties.

Organise and provide any induction training that may be required by new starters joining the trust.

Act as a role model and provide management and mentoring for allocated staff.

Ensure allocated staff have knowledge and understanding of all policies and procedures relating to their area of work.

Undertake the individual performance review process including the use of personal development plans for allocated staff

Identify development needs of allocated staff and support them in meeting these.

Ensure all mandatory training is up-to-date and recorded.

Authorise annual leave for technical staff.

Ensuring adequate cover at ward level can be maintained, covering annual leave sickness/ training

Ensure trust sickness procedures are followed for allocated staff taking responsibility to level 2 sickness monitoring. Ensure accurate documentation for same.

Following HR policies in management of team, including use of competency management, values based induction.

Lead the recruitment and selection process for the technical and support staff in allocated locality.

1.5 Financial Responsibility:

Oversee and direct the procurement and delivery of medicines within locality in conjunction with provider.

Ensure cost effective use of medications within locality, proposing changes to provide optimum treatment and best cost solutions.

Provide assurance for payment of invoices in relation to medication

For the full Job Description please see the attached in Supporting Infomation.

Experience

Essential

• Experience of working in a hospital pharmacy environment (Demonstrable substantial post qualification hospital pharmacy practice).
• Experience of managing staff and recruitment processes.
• Experience in the use of IT packages available for pharmacy & patient information systems.
• Experience of working in a mental health setting
• Understanding of the Patient monitoring requirements and pharmacy role for the supply of Clozapine.
• Experience of writing and reviewing SOPs both for dispensary processes and safe medicines management on ward areas.

Desirable

• Experience of working with Service level agreements across organizations
• Experience of electronic incident reporting systems such as Datix
• Previous experience of delivering training.
• Experience of working with electronic prescribing.
• Experienced in the supply of Clozapine
• Experience of presenting to other disciplines on pharmacy based subjects.

Qualifications

Essential

• Registered with GPhC as practicing pharmacy technician, holding appropriate qualification.

Desirable

• Management qualification NVQ certificate level or equivalent.

TRAINING

Essential

• Accredited Checking technician status
• Additional specialist knowledge and/or training in:
• Line management.
• Pharmacy medicines management systems.
• Health and safety.
• Mental Health.
• Willingness to undertake further training.
• Recent IT qualification/ training.
• Post clinical diploma in clinical pharmacy services or complete within first year NVQ level 4.

Desirable

• NVQ Assessor/Facilitator status
• NVQ Internal verifier status
• Wakefield post Certificate of psychiatric therapies

SPECIAL KNOWLEDGE/SKILLS

Essential

• Recent experience of dispensing and checking prescriptions within a hospital disensary.
• Ability to produce both written and data reports
• Experience of incident reporting system and associated reporting.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Ability to manage priorities and deliver to dead-lines.
• Ability to manage information systems.
• Ability to manage difficult and hostile or emotive situations calmly & effectively.
• Team player.
• Self-motivated and enthusiastic.
• Good IT skills.

Desirable

• Up to date knowledge of psychotropic medications.

PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES

Essential

• Ability to undertake the duties and demands of the post. A satisfactory sickness record over the previous 2 years (subject to the need to act with fairness and equality of opportunity, particularly where the sickness is related to a disability and/or pregnancy).

PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES

Essential

• Empathy with mental illness and understanding of mental health issues, illnesses and treatment.
• Able to use initiative.
• Team player with effective leadership skills.
• Ability to cope with emotional distressing situations.
• Excellent organisational ability.
• Attention to detail.
• Aptitude to learn new skills.
• Experience of managing change and supporting others through the process.
• Ability to work in a secure forensic setting.
• Ability to maintain concentration despite interruptions in a busy environment.
• Commitment to CPD.
• Ability to travel around the Trust as appropriate to the role.

Desirable

• Previous experience of working systems within a medium or high secure healthcare environment.

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).