Senior Pharmacy Technician

Job content

We are on a continuous journey of improvement and transformation , however our main priority is, and always will be, providing safe and high quality care to our patients every day; the kind of care we would want for ourselves and our loved ones. If you share our passion then apply for this opportunity and help us make our patients’ experience the best it can possibly be.

With a budget of around £270m, three hospitals and 5,500 staff, North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust provides hospital-based services to the population of Hartlepool, Stockton on Tees and parts of East Durham and Sedgefield as well as community, therapeutic and screening to a wider population across Durham and Teesside.

Job Overview

Technicians are responsible for undertaking a broad range of technical duties in the various sections of the pharmacy, to aid in the efficient and effective delivery of pharmacy services to patients and users of the service. This post builds on the job description of the Band 4 and includes competencies and tasks which are present in those job descriptions but additionally reflects the responsibility involved in final checking of prescriptions and providing managerial support to the Section Manager.

Applications from registered pharmacy technicians that are currently working towards, or willing to undertake the relevant medicines management or accuracy checking qualifications listed in the person specification are welcome. If successful such post-holders will be remunerated in line with an agreed proportion of the top of the current pay band until training is successfully completed in an agreed time frame.

Main duties of the job

As a Band 5 technician, you will have responsibility for a specific role within the pharmacy team, such as managing controlled drugs, training and development, supporting the Omnicell administrator or stock control.

You will work at ward level as part of the ward pharmacy team, providing a near-patient ordering and discharge service to improve patient flow and enable more timely discharge. As well as this, you will be required to use the skills obtained through successful completion of an accredited Medicines Management course to undertake medicines reconciliation on both the Emergency Admissions Unit and the base in-patient wards, working within your competence and referring queries to the Ward Pharmacists when required.

Working for our organisation

Pharmacy and Medicines Optimisation at the Trust are well developed and we aim to provide high quality care with an emphasis on services to patients, through a modernised lean process. We are committed to sharing excellence through our teaching role, are clinically orientated, use IT to enable change, host two Specialist Pharmacy Services, a Supra - Regional QC Laboratory, and Regional Procurement Specialists. The department is committed to the use of new technology and we use ASCribe/EMIS, Omnicell electronic storage cabinets, 2 state-of-the-art BD Rowa Vmax robots, and have implemented ChemoCare and TrakCare electronic prescribing systems.

Detailed Job Description And Main Responsibilities

Ward-based Clinical Pharmacy Services

• Works as part of the ward-based clinical pharmacy team to provide near-patient services, for example medicines reconciliation, ordering of medication for in-patient use, processing and final accuracy checking of discharge prescriptions and discharge counselling.
• Provides a service to the Patient Orientated Pharmacy (POP) Project, including delivering training and providing cover.
• Provides advice, with own competence, to nursing staff in clinical areas in relation to supply and availability of medication in order to reduce the incidence of missed doses.
• Ensures that medicines within the clinical areas are stored correctly and securely, giving feedback to staff, if required, when there are deviations from best practice.
  

General/Dispensary

• Carries out the supply of ward medicine stock items, temporary stocks for named patients and handles enquiries under the direction of the Dispensary Manager and Clinical Pharmacists, by following the defined SOP’s.
• Dispenses discharge, inpatient and outpatient prescriptions under the supervision of a Dispensary Manager and clinical pharmacist by following the defined SOP’s.
• Performs final accuracy checks of dispensed items, following appropriate training and demonstration of competence, in line with departmental SOPs, for those items that have been clinically checked.
• Maintains a safe working environment within the department and good internal and external communications with nursing staff and other hospital departments, referring any difficulties to be a pharmacist or senior member of staff.
• By liaison with clinical pharmacists, through the Principal Technician - Logistics, reviews and maintains ward medicines stock levels.
• Participates in the topping-up service for drug distribution in the hospital and other off-site locations when required, updating records as necessary.
• Problem solves and deals with enquiries from patients and users, passing enquiry’s to more senior staff when necessary. Provides written and oral information on the use of medicines to patients attending the pharmacy.
• Maintains adequate medicine stock levels and undertakes stock checks in the dispensaries.
  

Additional Duties

• Supports junior pharmacy staff in performing their duties.
• Undertakes a supervisory role in the in-patient dispensary on a sessional basis, ensuring that work flow is maintained and all KPIs for pharmacy operational services are met.
• Provides personal managerial support to the Principal and/or Chief Technicians. This is defined as a supervisory role in being responsible for the organisation of staffing to match workload, advanced problem solving, and achieving Departmental standards for qualitative and quantitative performance measures.
• Demonstrate commitment to IWL principles and flexible working patterns to meet the needs of the service and staff.
• Tackle discrimination and harassment and promote equality and diversity in the workplace.
• Reduce sickness absence, workplace accidents and promote zero tolerance on violence against staff.
• Take responsibility for personal development and education and the development of a Personal Development Plan.
  

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Registered Pharmacy Technician with the GPhC
• Completed Regional Accredited Checking Technician Course
• Medicines management level 4 (or working towards)
  

Experience

Essential criteria

• Experience of working at previous grade
• Hospital experience