East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust

Lead Pharmacy Assistant – Dispensary Services

This job is now closed

Job summary

Have you got the enthusiasm and passion to take the next step in your career in an acute hospital pharmacy department?

We have created exciting new roles for pharmacy assistants who have recent pharmacy practice experience to develop their leadership skills and become a Lead Pharmacy Assistant. You will contribute to our team by delivering a safe and effective pharmacy dispensary service.

You will play a pivotal role in the delivery of a high quality service to our patients and other hospital service users by taking on the role of shift manager for our 3 different dispensaries, co-ordinating workflow and overseeing our pharmacy assistants.

Using your extensive knowledge of pharmacy practice, you will use your experience to answer queries from colleagues, patients and other service users to ensure the provision of a professional friendly service.

In order to help you make this next step in your career, support and training will be provided. This includes support and mentorship from the Dispensary Managers, pharmacy related courses and in-house training including the Trust's Emerging Leader Course.

This role will require weekend working and is based within the Pharmacy department at Colchester Hospital.

Main duties of the job

Details about our pharmacy service - https://esneft.pagetiger.com/buqzfou/1

Day to day leadership responsibility for ensuring that operational activity at Dispensary level is undertaken. Provide direct line management to the Dispensing Assistant team including conducting appraisals, drafting rotas, monitoring attendance and absence levels and monitoring compliance with mandatory training requirements.
Be the first point of contact for multidisciplinary staff requiring support and/or advice relating to this service
Proactively co-ordinate and manage the flow of work through Dispensary Services to ensure an efficient and safe Pharmacy service to patients and staff.
Assisting the Chief Pharmacy Technician and Dispensary Manager with the induction, training and development of staff working within dispensary services.
Work collaboratively with wider Pharmacy colleagues to ensure the optimal and cost effective use of medicines within the dispensary environments; minimising drug wastage accordingly.

About us

We are ESNEFT and we provide hospital and community health services to almost one million people across east Suffolk and north Essex. Our dedicated staff deliver care from acute hospitals in Colchester and Ipswich, community hospitals, surgeries, community clinics and in patients' own homes

We are one of the largest NHS organisations in England, employing more than 12,000 staff

We pride ourselves on supporting our staff. We offer a wide range of training and development opportunities, as well as flexible working options

Along with supporting you to achieve your career goals we offer a generous pension scheme, unsocial hours payments (where applicable), 27 days annual leave on commencement (pro rata) and access to a range of NHS discounts. Our Staff Health and Wellbeing programme offer a variety of services

Our philosophy is that Time Matters to everyone. Across the Trust, we concentrate on improving the things we do and removing those which cause time delays for our staff and patients

We are investing in our commitment to Time Matters with a partnership with leading electronic patient record (EPR) supplier Epic. This digital transformation will bring what's widely regarded as the world's best EPR system to ESNEFT, transforming life in hospital for staff and patients

If you are passionate about patient care and want to develop your skills and knowledge, then we want to hear from you

Find out about living and working here - www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkPu7HphU8A

Date posted

03 April 2025

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 4

Salary

£26,530 to £29,114 a year per annum pro rata

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Full-time, Job share

Reference number

432-HR23-25

Job locations

Colchester Hospital

Turner Road

Colchester

CO45JL

Job description

Job responsibilities

For full details of the responsibilities and duties of this role please see the attached job description.

Job description

Job responsibilities

For full details of the responsibilities and duties of this role please see the attached job description.

Person Specification

Experience

Essential

Recent experience of working within Pharmacy practice
Experience in dealing with patients, the general public and multidisciplinary healthcare colleagues
Demonstrated experience of multi-disciplinary working within a team
Working with patient identifiable and/or commercially sensitive information
Experience of multi-organisational/partnership working
Understanding of the need for delivering a cost effective service
Experience of supervising/managing or mentoring

Desirable

Experience of working within a hospital pharmacy or other relevant clinical/operational environment
Experience of leading a team and responsibility for training, developing and appraising a team
Experience of service development across a range of deliverables and monitoring compliance/progress

Qualifications

Essential

NVQ Level 2 Certificate in Pharmacy Service Skills or equivalent and evidence of additional CPD/Training/Knowledge equivalent to NVQ Level 3

Desirable

Level 3 qualification in a relevant subject/willingness to undertake

Knowledge

Essential

Importance of the optimal financial usage and stock control of medicines
Hospital Dispensing processes
Understands the issues in handling materials which are hazardous
Knowledge of pharmaceutical products/medicines
Principles of team leadership

Desirable

Distribution practices and supply chain logistics

Person Specification

Experience

Essential

Recent experience of working within Pharmacy practice
Experience in dealing with patients, the general public and multidisciplinary healthcare colleagues
Demonstrated experience of multi-disciplinary working within a team
Working with patient identifiable and/or commercially sensitive information
Experience of multi-organisational/partnership working
Understanding of the need for delivering a cost effective service
Experience of supervising/managing or mentoring

Desirable

Experience of working within a hospital pharmacy or other relevant clinical/operational environment
Experience of leading a team and responsibility for training, developing and appraising a team
Experience of service development across a range of deliverables and monitoring compliance/progress

Qualifications

Essential

NVQ Level 2 Certificate in Pharmacy Service Skills or equivalent and evidence of additional CPD/Training/Knowledge equivalent to NVQ Level 3

Desirable

Level 3 qualification in a relevant subject/willingness to undertake

Knowledge

Essential

Importance of the optimal financial usage and stock control of medicines
Hospital Dispensing processes
Understands the issues in handling materials which are hazardous
Knowledge of pharmaceutical products/medicines
Principles of team leadership

Desirable

Distribution practices and supply chain logistics

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.

Employer details

Employer name

East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Colchester Hospital

Turner Road

Colchester

CO45JL

Employer's website

https://www.esneft.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)

Employer details

Employer name

East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Colchester Hospital

Turner Road

Colchester

CO45JL

Employer's website

https://www.esneft.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)