Pharmacy Technician - Primary Care

Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust • Full-time • Remote (United Kingdom, England, Liverpool) • £27.06k - £32.93k / year • 3w ago

We are looking to recruit enthusiastic and self-motivated pharmacy technicians to join the Mersey Care Medicines Management Team. The Medicines Management service has been restructured and is working under a newly established senior management team which is fully committed to delivering outstanding pharmacy services and invest in the professional development of the pharmacy workforce.

Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust is commissioned to provide Medicines management support to community physical health services in Liverpool and Knowsley as well as inpatient physical health, community mental health and inpatient mental health services. This post is working within the community physical health division in Liverpool. The Medicines Management Team within Mersey Care is looking for enthusiastic patient focused technicians to join our friendly and experienced team of pharmacists and technicians working within GP practices and care homes in Liverpool. You will work with our existing, well-established team who will provide management support, training and supervision. We are keen to develop our team with current staff completing clinical diplomas, CPPE – Primary care education pathway and non-medical prescribing when opportunities arise

Shortlisting date is planned for 17th May 2023

Interview date is planned for 1st June 2023

The post holder will be an experienced Pharmacy Technician operating independently to support evidence-based cost effective and safe prescribing of medicines delivering prescribing support via an agreed work plan in GP practices. Work is managed rather than supervised on a day-to-day basis.

Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 11 million people.

We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. Mersey Care is one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities.

At the heart of all we do is our commitment to ‘perfect care’ – care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together. We’re currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide.

Our ambition is to deliver perfect care to become the world’s leading organisation in holistic health and well being.

Mersey Care’s vision and values of Continuous Improvement, Accountability, Respect, Enthusiasm and Support (CARES) drive our organisation and the way we work together to deliver services. Applicants will be expected to demonstrate, during recruitment and any subsequent employment with the Trust, that their behaviour supports our values.

To plan and deliver and prioritise own workload to meet activity levels and deadlines for team / service/ GP practice.

To work flexibly to accommodate altered priorities within the service work plan.

To deliver clinical work to a high level of accuracy, employing a self-checking approach.

To support evidence-based cost effective and safe prescribing of medicines through delivering an agreed work plan.

To work with the pharmacist & practice staff to agree a GP Practice plan.

To work within standard operating procedures and Medicines Management Protocols for identified projects / audits.

To undertake audit and analysis of prescribing activity data to provide assurance for prescribing practices against national / local guidance, safety alerts etc.

To provide advice to GPs in relation to patients covered by projects/audits within the work plan and communicate any changes in medication to patients/carers (verbally or by post).

To plan and implement practice level medicines management change programs within named practice/locality.

To monitor the use of hospital only, specials or other identified drug groups within practices and make recommendations in line with service approach.

To be responsible for maintaining numerous information systems including for example EMIS, SCR, RiO and Prescription tracker.

To work within GP practice or medicines management bas where there will be frequent interruptions for medicines related advice.

There is a frequent need for high levels of concentration in order to ensure patient safety and a high level of accuracy on a daily basis.

To work with GP Practices to identify and implement changes in repeat prescribing systems to improve quality & safety and decrease waste. This involves supporting practices to update their repeat prescribing policies, training teams of practice staff when necessary, on principles of safe
repeat prescribing processes, medicines optimisation and efficient use of electronic prescribing.

Delivery of an intensive support plan developed by Technician PCN Technician Leads on request from ICB for an individual practice or number of practices if safety evidence suggests that their systems are failing.

To support practices in managing their prescribing budget through monitoring ePACT data.

Responsible for maintaining service activity information system for named practices.

To enter required project and service activity information on one or more databases in a timely fashion and ensure that the record is complete.

Responsible for maintaining accurate documentation on the GP Information system.

To communicate patient and work plan information to colleagues, other clinicians including
community pharmacy, and patients in a timely fashion, following up outcomes.

To deliver prepared resources (e.g., academic detailing cards and results of practice audits on a 1 to 1 or small group practice meeting.

To support the development & implementation of policies, protocols, and standard operating procedures within area of work and more widely, as required by the service.

To complete reconciliation of medication in GP practices from discharge letters and clinic correspondence and perform technical medication reviews e.g., dose optimisation and medicines synchronisation following discussion with the patient/carer and GP and ensuring all reviews are documented accurately on the clinical system.

To consult with vulnerable patients and carers referred by other healthcare or social care professionals and carry out medication reconciliation and optimisation reviews remotely or in a domiciliary, care home or clinic setting.

Good manual dexterity and ability to work with a high level of accuracy to use a range of medical devices.

To support and reassure patients when necessary. This includes having difficult discussions concerning sensitive issues, after assessing risk and potential harm associated with medication. Patients may have multiple co-morbidities and be prescribed numerous medications (polypharmacy) which may interact. There may be barriers to understanding and communication difficulties e.g., distressed elderly frail patients, stroke patients and those with learning disabilities. The post holder may need to use empathy, tact and persuasion to support patient concordance with medicines.

There may be occasional exposure to verbal aggression from patients related to challenging projects such as cost reduction incentives and when supporting medicines review/reconciliation in EMI care homes.

To undertake cost saving switches and update Emis formulary at practice level in line with NICE, Pan Mersey guidance and the CCG agreed cost saving plan.

To report any breaches of patient safety to the practice, line manager and the trust via the incident reporting system.

To train new and less experienced primary care staff within all roles to deliver the work plan, use Emis web, complete audits and medicines optimisation.

To be able to concentrate for significant periods in GP Practices and be exposed to VDU units for several hours each day.

To support projects to improve quality, safety & productivity.

To support business continuity measures during emergencies and major incidents.

To participate in regular appraisal with their manager and to identify performance standards of the post. As part of the appraisal process every employee is responsible for participating in identifying their own training and development needs to meet their KSF outline.

To undertake mandatory training and other training as required and keep informed of developments within area of working practice. To ensure professional competency through continuing professional education and in line with General Pharmaceutical Council requirements. To assist in the recruitment of staff, including participation in recruitment panels.

To provide day to day professional and clinical supervision and training for rotational entry level technicians to communicate with service users, medicines management staff, other trust staff, and staff from external organisations. To attend and proactively contribute to team meetings.

To undertake other relevant duties which are commensurate with the role, including project work, internal job rotation and absence cover.