Pharmacy Technician
Job Description and Person Specification
We have an exciting opportunity for an enthusiastic Pharmacy Technician to join our growing practice-based pharmacy team.
Closing date for applications -21st May 2023
Interview date - 31st May 2023
Responsible to: Lead Pharmacist and practice managers
Accountable to: Lead Pharmacist
Base: Will be based in Oswestry but on occasion will be required to travel to other practices within the PCN.
Salary: Equivalent Band 4/5 dependant on experience
Job Summary: North Shropshire Primary Care Network (PCN) is comprised of 6 GP practice across North Shropshire providing services for 81,000 patients. The PCN also covers 2 other GP practices in North Shropshire providing services for another 8,500 patients.
Clinical Pharmacy in General Practice is part of an exciting programme of transformation to develop a new model of care which addresses our ambition to deliver person-centred, coordinated care across the PCN. The Clinical Pharmacy in General Practice model is supported by the direction of national policy including the Five Year Forward View and GP Forward View where there is a need to better utilise the role of pharmacy within primary care to pro-actively help patients stay safe and well and out of hospital as well as helping to reduce the demands on general practice.
Pharmacy technicians play an important role, complementing clinical pharmacists, community pharmacists and other members of the PCN multi-disciplinary team. Pharmacy technicians are different to clinical pharmacists as they are not able to prescribe or make clinical decisions, instead working under supervision to ensure effective and efficient use of medicines. The Pharmacy technician role will cover clinical, technical and administrative areas in a primary care setting.
The purpose of the role is to lead improvements to maximise safe, cost effective best practice in prescribing to improve the quality of patient care. The post holder will help patients to get the best from their medicines by switching medications to agreed and approved protocols, improving repeat prescribing processes in General Practice, including promotion of repeat dispensing and online ordering, minimising clinical risk and aiming to reduce wasted medicines. In addition, the post holder will be responsible for encouraging the development of better understanding of the principles of medicines optimisation throughout the practice teams and promoting good practice in line with therapeutic developments. This will involve assisting the PCN in achieving national requirements, NICE implementation and utilisation of medicines optimisation initiatives.
Primary Duties and Areas of Responsibility
Clinical
Undertake patient facing and patient supporting roles to ensure effective medicines use, through shared decision-making conversations with patients.
Carry out medicines optimisation tasks including effective medicine administration (e.g. checking inhaler technique), supporting medication reviews and medicines reconciliation. Where required, utilise consultation skills to work in partnership with patients to ensure they use their medicines effectively.
As determined by the PCN, support medication reviews and medicines reconciliation for new care home patients and synchronising medicines for patient transfers between care settings, linking with local community pharmacies
Support the Clinical Pharmacist in Structured Medication Reviews (SMR) e.g organise necessary monitoring tests prior to SMR
Provide expertise to address both the public health and social care needs of patients, including lifestyle advice, service information, and help in tackling local health inequalities.
Manage shared care protocols and liaise with Clinical Pharmacists for more complex patients.
Support initiatives for antimicrobial stewardship to reduce inappropriate antibiotic prescribing locally.
Technical and Administrative
Support the PCN multi-disciplinary team to ensure efficient medicines optimisation processes are being followed.
Implement efficient ordering and return processes and reducing medication wastage.
Provide training and support on the legal, safe and secure handling of medicines, including the implementation of the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS).
Promotion of Electronic Repeat Dispensing (eRD) and online ordering
Develop relationships with other pharmacy professionals and members of the multidisciplinary team to support integration across health and social care including primary care, community pharmacy, secondary care and mental health.
Support practice reception teams in streaming general prescription requests, so as to allow GPs and clinical pharmacists to review the more clinically complex requests.
Support the implementation of national prescribing policies and guidance within GP practices, care homes and other primary care settings.
Support the PCN in reviewing and developing practice policies for CQC requirements
Support the PCN to deliver on the QIPP agenda, QOF and locally commissioned enhanced services
Support the PCN in reviewing and developing practice policies for CQC requirements
All Pharmacy Technicians must work within their competencies and have professional indemnity for their role.
General
The postholder will:
- Develop a culture that promotes equality and values diversity. The postholder must be aware of and committed to the Equality and Diversity policies of the PCN and comply with all the requirements of these policies and actively promote Equality and Diversity issues relevant to the post.
- Ensure the principles of openness, transparency and candour are observed and upheld in all working practices.
- The post holder will have, or acquire through training provided by the organisation, the appropriate level of safeguarding and knowledge, skills and practice required for the post and be aware of and comply with the organisation’s safeguarding protection policies and procedures.
- Ensure that any infection prevention and control issues are reported to the line manager/Infection Prevention and Control
Equality and diversity:
- The post-holder will support the equality, diversity and rights of patients, carers and colleagues, to include:
- Acting in a way that recognises the importance of people’s rights, interpreting them in a way that is consistent with practice procedures and policies, and current legislation
- Respecting the privacy, dignity, needs and beliefs of patients, carers and colleagues
- Behaving in a manner which is welcoming to and of the individual, is non-judgmental and respects their circumstances, feelings priorities and rights.
Personal/Professional development:
- The post-holder will participate in any training programme implemented by the practice as part of this employment, with such training to include:
o Participation in an annual individual performance review, including taking responsibility for maintaining a record of own personal and/or professional development
o Taking responsibility for own development, learning and performance and demonstrating skills and activities to others who are undertaking similar work
Quality:
The post-holder will strive to maintain quality within the practice, and will:
- Alert other team members to issues of quality and risk
- Assess own performance and take accountability for own actions, either directly or under supervision
- Contribute to the effectiveness of the team by reflecting on own and team activities and making suggestions on ways to improve and enhance the team’s performance
- Work effectively with individuals in other agencies to meet patients’ needs
- Effectively manage own time, workload and resources
PERSON SPECIFICATION
Essential Criteria
Professional registration with GPhC
BTEC/NVQ level 3 or equivalent in pharmaceutical sciences
Evidence of continued professional development (CPD) and continued commitment to improve skills and ability in new areas of work.
Good pharmacy knowledge including terminology
Knowledge and understanding of pharmacy law and ethics and current legislation
Excellent IT skills and knowledge of Microsoft office packages.
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 verbal and written communication skills with team members, patients, carers, and other healthcare professionals. Whilst recognising people’s needs for alternative methods of communication, with the ability to adjust communication style and content to suit the audience
An excellent understanding of data protection and confidentiality issues
Works effectively independently and as a member of a team
Flexible approach to meet service needs and ensure a stakeholder focused response
Self-motivated and proactive
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
Adaptability, flexibility, and ability to cope with uncertainty and change
Demonstrate ability to work in a busy environment; ability to deal with both urgent and important tasks and to prioritise effectively whilst also supporting others
Excellent time keeping and prioritisation skills
Desirable Criteria
Experience of working as a qualified, registered pharmacy technician in primary care, community, or hospital pharmacy
Demonstrate ability to influence and persuade partners and stakeholders of the respective merits of different options, innovations, new opportunities and challenges
Relevant advanced theoretical and practical knowledge of Primary Care Networks, General Practice and evidence-based medicine
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 PCN and NHS priorities and requirements for financial balance and quality
An appreciation of the nature of primary care prescribing, concepts of rational prescribing and strategies for the improvement of prescribing
Computer literate with an ability to use the required GP clinical systems
Understand the aims of current healthcare policy within the PCN
Able to analyse and interpret prescribing data
Influencing and negotiating skills
Job Types: Full-time, Part-time, Permanent
Salary: £23,949.00-£32,934.00 per year
Work Location: In person
Application deadline: 21/05/2023