Pharmacy Technician

Job summary

This Position is based at Heaton Moor Medical Group PCN - pay scale Band 4/5 dependent on experience.

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 district. 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 core role responsibilities will cover clinical, and technical and administrative categories.

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, and will support and be supported by the Clinical Pharmacist at the General Practice

Main duties of the job

Clinical

• Undertake patient telephone/ 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.
• Support the Clinical Pharmacist in Structured Medication Reviews (SMR)
• Provide alternatives to out of stock medications.
• Medicines reconciliation.
• Nursing home medication issues.
• 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.
• Implement efficient ordering and return processes and reducing medication wastage.
• Repeat dispensing.
• Medication dose titrations and follow up.
• Medicines safety audit.
• Manage MHRA alerts.
• Medication reviews.
• Aid the pharmacists on call triage.
• Qof, IIF and network DES targets.
• Provide training and support on the legal, safe and secure handling of medicines, including the implementation of the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS).
• 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.
• IT literate.
• Working alongside experience independent prescribers, pharmacy team and medication clerks.

Job responsibilities

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 appointing GP Federation 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 organisations safeguarding protection policies and procedures.

Ensure that any infection prevention and control issues are reported to the line manager/Infection Prevention and Control

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 peoples 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:

Participation in an annual individual performance review, including taking responsibility for maintaining a record of own personal and/or professional development

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 teams performance

Work effectively with individuals in other agencies to meet patients needs

Effectively manage own time, workload and resources

The postholder will have access to appropriate clinical supervision and an appropriate named individual in the PCN to provide general advice and support on a day to day basis.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Professional registration with GPhC
• Meets the specific qualification and training requirements as specified by the GPhC criteria to register as a Pharmacy Technician; c. enrolled in, undertaking or qualified from, an approved training pathway. For example, the Primary Care Pharmacy Educational Pathway (PCPEP) or Medicines Optimisation in Care Homes (MOCH);

Desirable

• BTEC/NVQ level 3 or equivalent in pharmaceutical sciences

Experience

Essential

• Individual patient dispensing systems.
• Have experience and an awareness of common acute and long-term conditions that are likely to be seen in general practice.

Desirable

• Experience of working in primary care
• Experience of working in a GP Practice

Skills & Aptitudes

Essential

• Well-developed communication, negotiation, presentation and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to organise and prioritise workload.
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team.
• Ability to work accurately to deadlines.
• Leadership skills.
• Organisational skills.
• Able to prioritise work to meet deadlines.
• Able to maintain and develop professional relationships.
• Able to identify when advice needs to be sought, recognising personal limitations. Computer literate.

Desirable

• Coaching Skills

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).

Job Types: Full-time, Permanent

Job Types: Full-time, Permanent

Salary: £25,914.00-£30,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• Company events
• Company pension

Schedule:

• Day shift
• Monday to Friday

Work Location: In person

Application deadline: 16/03/2023
Reference ID: PT Heatons PCN
Expected start date: 27/03/2023