Pharmacy Technician

Job responsibilities

JOB PURPOSE

• The post holder will deliver core pharmacy technician duties to our practices within the East Cornwall Primary Care Network as one of the multidisciplinary clinical team. Duties will include dealing with prescription queries, synchronisation of repeat medications, processing discharge summaries/clinic letters, undertaking clinical audits and promoting best prescribing practice as part of patient centred care within the surgeries where they are based. The post holder will work as part of a growing team of pharmacy technicians across the practices in East Cornwall to deliver health and medicines optimisation interventions at a neighbourhood population level. Working arrangements may be in person in practice or via remote assistance as part of a virtual team of clinicians.

KEY DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

CLINICAL RESPONSIBILITIES

• Identify patients requiring medication review and conduct appropriate medication review clinics or home visits if required by the organisation/practices and liaise with carers, Community Health teams or social care staff in order to optimise drug therapy, reduce polypharmacy and minimise unnecessary waste, communicating directly with patients as necessary.

• Provide medicines use advice and support to GP practice staff, practice registered patients, and the wider practice team such as community staff (district nurses, mid-wife’s, and physiotherapists) where appropriate.

• Help support the safe and effective operation of the prescribing system in the GP practice, including updating repeat medication regimes, issuing of appropriate acute prescriptions, flagging relevant laboratory testing and identifying patients due chronic disease reviews (e.g. annual asthma reviews)

• Deal with appropriate prescription queries presentations, such as medications not available due to stock shortages, synchronisation of repeat medications telephone queries from patients regarding their prescribed or over the counter medicines. Provide ‘make every contact count’ public health education interventions to patients.

• Provide pharmaceutical support to a designated group of GP practices or care settings to enable them to develop, implement and monitor an agreed prescribing process plan which meets the objectives of the medicines management plan.

• Assist practices/ care settings in developing formularies, guidelines and policies to ensure the implementation of NICE guidelines, National Service Frameworks and the requirements of the medicines-related aspects of the GMS contract.

• Advise GPs, care staff and primary health care teams on risk management processes relating to the prescribing and monitoring of specialist drugs e.g. controlled drugs and those subject to shared care arrangements.

• Support practices to review specific areas of prescribing, specified by the line management or identified with the GP prescribing lead, including the interpretation of e-PACT data and the use of practice information to review prescribing and identify areas for action.

• Assist with the development and ongoing review of practice policy with regard to repeat prescribing systems and repeat dispensing to encourage the implementation of prescribing guidance and monitoring guidelines where appropriate.

• Liaise with Community Pharmacists to encourage them to reinforce changes made, encouraging them to identify savings which can be achieved with regard to generics, dose optimisations etc. and to assist in building their relationship with the practice.

• Answer medicine related queries from GPs, care settings, practice staff, PALS, social care staff and the general public in a timely and appropriate manner, escalating to and involving other relevant health care professionals within the practice in the absence of national guidance or agreed protocols where needed

• Provide advice and support to improve the disease registers within each practice to ensure all suitable patients are identified and offered suitable treatment and monitoring for their condition.

• Participate in multi-disciplinary meetings related to prescribing topics and to engage in the training of other healthcare professionals and practice staff on matters relating to medicines usage.

• Undertake clinical audits of prescribing in areas identified by yourself and agreed by the PCN or as directed by the PCN, feedback the results and implement changes in conjunction with the relevant practice team.

• Work innovatively with new technology to facilitate novel ways of working, which may include as part of a virtual hub within the network which provides support remotely to a number of practices, working alongside clinical pharmacists.

• Respond to MHRA and other patient safety alerts by searching for relevant populations included and implementing agreed patient safety measures in line with the practice prescribing lead.

• Undertake any other duties appropriate to the grade as allocated by line management.

Responsibilities for physical and financial resources

• Contribute to, and promote the delivery of, safe, effective and cost efficient prescribing across primary and secondary care to achieve the most effective use of the medicines resource at both practice level and across the entire health economy

• Analyse and use web based prescribing data (PACT and e-PACT) at practice to facilitate appropriate prescribing habits and keep drug budgets within limits. Evaluate this information to identify areas of increased expenditure and advise on actions to be taken to ensure prescribing is cost effective and evidence based.

• Support and improve GP practices’ position with respect to QOF or other incentive schemes including achievement of both financial and quality targets and communicate this to practices updating the plan with the practice.

• Be responsible for the correct use and security of all equipment, information and data used.

• Responsible for prescription charges, security of controlled drugs and stock levels.

Communications and leadership

• Be required to communicate information, sometimes complex, to a wide range of individuals and groups with different levels of understanding using a well developed range of verbal and written skills.

• Demonstrate tact, diplomacy and negotiating skills to engage with doctors to persuade them to work towards objectives, overcoming resistance to change.

• Develop good working relationships with the whole range of practice staff and a network of contacts within the locality and secondary care to provide problem-solving advice on a wide range of matters relating to medicines.

• Liaise with community pharmacy teams in the vicinity of where prescribing and medicines management developments and/or changes are planned so they may anticipate the impact on their pharmacies and give a consistent message to patients.

• Work in a discreet and professional manner, respecting and maintaining the confidentiality of patient specific and prescribing data (both at practice and organisational/locality wide level).

Policy and Service Development

• Support the development of prescribing policy in individual practices and care settings, the implementation of that policy and be involved in the development of policy in discreet areas of prescribing, involving working with clinicians in both primary and secondary care.

Planning and organising

• Be able to prioritise and meet set deadlines particularly when under pressure.

• Take the delegated lead responsibility for specific projects or key specialist areas of pharmacy practice as identified by line management.

• Organise and manage their personal workload in the face of competing priorities, managing their own time effectively and working closely with a range of practice staff and the administration and technical staff in the Medicines Management department.

• Record and report to line management and practices on the work undertaken and the benefits produced, in a timely manner, using tools such as Microsoft Word, Excel, and e-mail.

Analysis and data management

• Critically appraise information from drug industry to inform other staff members and healthcare professionals in practices.

• Assist in analysing medicines data, including interpreting e-PACT data (web-based electronic prescribing data analysis system) and providing reports at practice level for designated practices.

• Demonstrate good computer literacy (e-mail, word, excel, PowerPoint, on-line medicines information databases).

• Promote and be an advocate for the use of local formularies in practices in both written and electronic format ensuring that the formulary is the cornerstone for all prescribing practice in primary care.

Decisions made: (Freedom to act)

• The post holder will be guided by their professional Code of Ethics, relevant legislation, policies and guidelines, local and national medicines management frameworks and guidance and will be able to interpret these and make judgements on how they apply when dealing with specific situations as they arise. The post holder will be expected to work under their own initiative, often in isolation, but will be able to seek guidance from their peers or line managers if the need arises.

 For more information on duties and responsibilities, please find the job description attached.

Experience

Essential

• Knowledge of the wider NHS
• Extensive knowledge and expertise across a number of prescribing process and quality improvement areas, such as competence in delivering clinical audit
• NHS experience in Primary Care, Hospital or Community Pharmacy
• Delivery of Medicines Management Standards and Policies
• Experience of working with primary health care teams
• Experience of working on projects where post holder uses own initiative and manages own time

Desirable

• Knowledge of the use of drugs within several disease areas
• Experience of providing advice to GPs and primary care clinicians
• Experience in analysing Eclipse/prescribing data
• Experience in audit
• Experience of multidisciplinary working
• Experience of promoting formulary adherence within primary care
• Experience using GP clinical systems (e.g. SystmOne and EMIS)

Personal Attributes

Essential

• Honesty
• Integrity
• Flexibility
• A desire to do the right thing
• An ability to admit, accept and learn from things that go wrong
• Adaptability
• Conscientious
• Dependable
• Emotionally resilient
• Resourceful

Qualifications

Essential

• Vocational NVQ3 level Pharmacy Technician qualification, or equivalent comprehensive experience.
• Registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)
• Evidence of commitment to Continuing Professional Development
• Experience of working within primary care settings

Desirable

• Registration with the Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK (APTUK)
• Completion of additional medicines management training
• Completion/Enrolment in the CPPE Primary Care Pharmacy Education Pathway or equivalent

Skills and Abilities

Essential

• Excellent written and oral communication skills
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Persuasive negotiating and influencing abilities
• Able to instigate and manage change
• Well organised and able to organise others
• Able to co-ordinate and plan activities with others
• Able to motivate others
• Able to prioritise and meet set targets
• Computer literate
• Advanced level of clinical reasoning and problem solving
• Maintains high standard of practice
• Able to work under pressure
• Able to work as part of a team or as an individual

Work Related Circumstances

Essential

• Flexibility required with regard to working hours
• Post holder will be required to travel between practices and needs a full driving licence and access to a car
• To use VDU equipment for a significant proportion of the day on most days:
• High degrees of concentration required.

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).