Primary Care Pharmacy Technician inBrierley Hill inBrierley Hill PUBLISHED MON 4 NOV 2024

We have an exciting opportunity for an enthusiastic, committed, and motivated pharmacy technician to join our well established integrated primary care pharmacy team.

As a team we are committed to the development of primary care pharmacy. We have been established for over 20 years developing our services to meet the needs of our practices and patients in Dudley.

The post holder will work as part of a multi-disciplinary team to provide medicines optimisation support activities including delivery of the Primary Care Network (PCN) DES, strategic PCN initiatives and our wider primary care pharmacy operational work plan. The post holder will contribute to safer patient care through provision of clinical audits, medication review and structured monitoring of high risk drug prescribing. The post holder will also act as an advisory resource to practices in relation to medicines optimisation, reducing medicines waste, improving medicines adherence and repeat prescribing processes.

Prior experience of working in General Practice or a similar role would be ideal but not essential.

An initial induction programme will be offered as well as ongoing training and supervision working alongside clinical pharmacists and other pharmacy technicians within the team. We have a strong emphasis on team working, supporting each other to professionally develop and meet our key objective of improving the health and wellbeing of our local population.

The duties and responsibilities are intended to be indicative but not exhaustive of the responsibilities of the post holder. Working alongside colleagues we will develop flexible work programmes to meet the needs of our practices and population, as such the requirements of the job may develop and change over time.

The Primary Care Network Pharmacy Technician role provides an exciting opportunity to develop and use your skills in a patient-facing and non-patient facing environment. As a Pharmacy Technician, you will play an important role complementing our clinical pharmacists and other members of the PCN team.

The purpose of the role is to promote and support improvements to maximise safer, cost effective medicines use and evidence guided prescribing, help to develop processes and systems for safer repeat prescribing, reduce medicines waste and improve the quality of patient care.

You will undertake patient supporting roles to ensure effective medicines use, carry out medicines optimisation tasks, clinical audit and medicines reconciliation to support our clinical pharmacists and the wider primary care team. The role will assist in delivery of our integrated work plan and incentive schemes.

If you are a self-motivated and enthusiastic registered pharmacy technician looking for a new challenge in primary care this could be an exciting opportunity for you.

About us

The post holder is a Pharmacy Technician with current GPhC registration.

Prior experience of working within a general practice environment would be ideal however we will consider registered candidates with experience from all fields of pharmacy.

The post holder will work within their professional boundaries as part of a multi-disciplinary team in both a patient-facing and non-patient role.

The post holder will be required to complete the CPPE Primary Care Pharmacy Education Pathway if not already completed.

The post holder would be expected to work within their scope of professional practice and encouraged to develop their scope to meet the needs of our population.

The post holder will support the Primary Care Network to ensure the delivery of safe, effective and efficient systems for repeat prescribing, medicines optimisation, reducing medicines waste and maximising patient outcomes. The role will also include training and development of prescription administrators to support improved co-ordination and effective pharmacy administration within general practice, especially with relation to repeat prescribing systems and processes.

They will contribute to audit and quality improvement including promoting and support of antimicrobial stewardship. They will reduce risk and improve medicines related care through provision of direct patient facing and remote medication review.

Key priorities for this role are to:

• To undertake medicines reconciliation in accordance with practice protocols and to update patients medical records / prescribing accordingly.
• To support the achievement of the practices prescribing Quality and Outcomes Framework targets.
• Working with the Practices to contribute to the review and development of repeat prescribing protocols / Standard Operating Procedures to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of repeat prescribing systems.
• To provide advice to GPs, staff and patients in changes to prescribing to support the improvement of prescribing safety, quality and cost effectiveness.
• To participate in medication audits.
• To assist in the appropriate monitoring and management of prescribing budgets
• To prepare evidence based resources and information to support the implementation of rational cost-effective prescribing.
• To support delivery of cost effective prescribing initiatives
• To support the Practices to provide medication reviews, patient information leaflets and medicine awareness
• To take a proactive approach to the safe handling of prescriptions, including assessment of risk and making recommendations for improvement.
• To respond to medication queries from patients and staff in a professional manner referring to practice pharmacists / appropriate GP in accordance with practice protocols.
• To advise on the sourcing and safe management of medicines as appropriate.
• Be responsible for the organisation, planning and of own workload to meet set deadlines.
• To undertake any other duties of a similar nature consistent with the responsibilities of this post in order to provide a quality service
• Support training and development of future pharmacy workforce
• Plan own workload to ensure high priority patient specific and other activities are dealt with in a timely fashion.
• Work with colleagues in the Pharmaceutical Public Health Team (PPHT) to carry out clinical audits and implement required changes to patient care in line with the PCN Direct Enhance Service, Investment and Impact Fund Indicators and medicines safety and quality work streams.
• Optimise benefit of prescribed medication through high levels of compliance and concordance achieved by support for the patient and carers.
• Provide professional input to practice medicines related activities including review and support for repeat prescribing systems and medicines related policies and procedures.
• Liaise with local community pharmacy colleagues to ensure accurate and effective medication management and support collaborative working.
• Produce monthly activity reports on work completed.

Primary Duties and Areas of Responsibility

• Establish and promote safer prescribing practice within scope of practice
• Contribute to medicines safety work through the analysis and prioritisation of high risk drugs monitoring, medication safety indicators and other practice based clinical reviews to promote safe and effective prescribing. Support the process of implementing changes to prescribing and guidance for practitioners.
• Contribute to practice based / NHS Trust incident reporting systems with an emphasis on medicines safety and the dissemination of learning
• Provide patient facing / telephone clinics for those with questions, queries and concerns about their medicines in the practice.
• Undertake medication reviews with patients taking high risk drugs (within scope of professional practice) and review for ongoing need and appropriate monitoring, making recommendations to practice pharmacists /GP as appropriate.
• Undertake medication reviews for patients with poor adherence to prescribed medication.
• Provide a telephone help line for patients with questions, queries and concerns about their medicines.
• Answers medicine related enquiries from GPs, other practice staff, other healthcare teams (e.g. community pharmacy) and patients with queries about medicines, suggesting and recommending solutions within scope of practice, escalating to senior colleagues where necessary.
• Support safe and timely medicines reconciliation

Medicines Optimisation in practice

• Support Implementation of a practice repeat prescribing policy.
• Contribute to clinical audits and improvement projects (prescribing incentive schemes)
• Utilise clinical system search results and prescribing data to contribute to identification of areas for intervention. Promote safer evidence-based practice and interventions to improve patient outcomes.
• Support antimicrobial stewardship initiatives
• To reconcile medicines following discharge from hospitals, intermediate care, step down care from care homes, including identifying and following up unexplained changes preparing recommendations for management and rectification of anomalous changes to discuss with senior pharmacist prior to implementation and with advice from GP if necessary.
• Liaise with patients on medication changes post discharge to promote a more seamless transfer of care.
• Liaise with community pharmacists to communicate changes to medication and ensure safe ongoing care.

Collaborative Working Relationships

• Recognise the roles of other colleagues within the organisation and their role to patient care.
• Demonstrate ability to work as part of a team.
• Can recognise personal limitations and refer to more appropriate colleague(s) when necessary.
• Actively work towards developing and maintaining effective working relationships both within and outside the practice and locality.
• Foster and maintain strong links with all services across locality.
• Liaises with colleagues on prescribing related matters to ensure consistency of patient care and to benefit from peer support.

Communication

• The post-holder should recognise the importance of effective communication within the team and will strive to:

Communicate effectively with other team members.

Communicate effectively with patients and carers.

Recognise peoples needs for alternative methods of communication and respond accordingly.

Knowledge, Skills and Experience Required

• Post registration experience in any area pharmacy (community, hospital or primary care)
• Accountable for delivering professional expertise and direct service provision within scope of competence.
• Uses skills in a range of routine situations requiring analysis or comparison of a range of options able to analyse and interpret complex information related to audit and prescribing data.
• Recognises priorities when problem-solving and identifies deviations from normal pattern and is able to refer to practice pharmacy colleagues or GPs when appropriate.
• Able to follow legal, ethical, professional and organisational policies/procedures and codes of conduct.
• Involves patients in decisions about prescribed medicines and supporting adherence as per NICE guidelines.

This job description is intended to provide an outline of the key tasks and responsibilities only. There may be other duties required of the post-holder commensurate with the position. This description will be open to regular review and may be amended to take into account service development.