Primary Care Network Pharmacy Technician

Job description

Job responsibilities

Job Title: Primary Care Network Pharmacy Technician

Responsible to: GP Practice Leads, Clinical Pharmacist, Greenwich Health Federation

Location: Woolwich (Head Office)/Woolwich, Thamesmead, Plumstead (Practice Sites), South East London

Hours of work: 40 hours

Key Relationships: The GP Federation, The PCN, Local practices, Providers

Greenwich Health

Greenwich Health is committed to providing quality of care to our patients whilst building resilience for General Practice and delivering services and programmes of work to deliver care at scale to the Greenwich Population.

Job Summary

The post holder will be employed by Greenwich Health the GP Federation in Greenwich. Greenwich has 6 primary care networks (PCNs) with list sizes of between 30-80,000 patients. The Post holder will work for one of these PCN, a grouping of 6 practices. Unusually the post holder will be working across two member practices with a combined list of 10,000.

The post holder will work as part of a multi-disciplinary team in a patient-facing role.

The post holder will work under the supervision of the Clinical Pharmacist and as an integrated part of the primary care team to ensure the safe, accurate and timely supply of prescribed medication to patients. The role will contribute to successful clinical management of patients and build capacity and capability in the workforce at the right levels.

Individual Responsibilities

The post holder is expected to:

Adhere to organisation policies and procedures and relevant legislation including the requirements of any professional bodies.

Maintain satisfactory personal performances and professional standards and to achieve agreed objectives for their role.

Attend mandatory training as identified by the organisation.

Participate in a Performance Appraisal Scheme and to contribute to their own development and the development of any staff they are responsible for appraising.

Responsible to have professional indemnity suitable for the range of work undertaking.

Responsible to have authorisation for making changes to prescribing records within the practice. This may be by written agreement or GP signature for specific audits.

Working Relationships:

Patients and carers where appropriate

GPs, nurses and other practice staff including practice pharmacists

GP prescribing leads

CCG pharmacists and medicines management team

Secondary Care and interface Pharmacists

Community Nurses and other allied health professionals

Community Pharmacists and support staff

The post holder is expected to work as a flexible member of the PCN providing support to other team members when necessary and to take an active role in the development and embedding of the PCNs culture, values and reputation as providers of high quality services.

Health & Safety

The post-holder will assist in promoting and maintaining their own and others health, safety and security as defined in the practice Health & Safety Policy, to include:

Using personal security systems within the workplace according to practice guidelines

Identifying the risks involved in work activities and undertaking such activities in a way that manages those risks

Making effective use of training to update knowledge and skills

Using appropriate infection control procedures, maintaining work areas in a tidy and safe way and free from hazards Reporting potential risks identified

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 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, feeling priorities and rights.

Personal/Professional Development:

The post-holder will participate in any training programme implemented by the PCN as part of this employment, 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 skill and activities to others who are undertaking similar work

Training may need to be undertaken outside of normal practice hours, and off site.

Quality and Governance:

The post-holder will strive to maintain quality within the PCN, 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.

Work effectively with individuals in other agencies

Effectively manage own time, workload and resources

Confidentiality:

In the course of seeking treatment, patients entrust us with, or allow us to gather, sensitive information in relation to their health and other matters. They do so in confidence and have the right to expect that staff will respect their privacy and act appropriately.

In the performance of the duties outlined in this Job Description, the post-holder may have access to confidential information relating to patients and their carers, practice staff and other healthcare workers. They may also have access to information relating to the practice as a business organisation. All such information from any source is to be regarded as strictly confidential.

Information relating to patients, carers, colleagues, other healthcare workers or the business of the practice may only be divulged to authorised persons in accordance with the practice policies and procedures relating to confidentiality and the protection of personal and sensitive data.

Key Responsibilities:

Provide technical and administrative support to the Clinical Pharmacists and Clinicians.

Support the primary care teams with queries around medication from patients; including face to face and telephone support to patients, primary and community staff.

Demonstrate the drive, enthusiasm and flexibility to respond to the developing needs of the role and the needs and priorities of individuals requiring support.

Under the direction of the clinical pharmacist, work independently and manage own workload.

Use excellent communication skills to liaise with patients, primary care staff, community pharmacists and other partners.

Duties and Responsibilities:

General:

Work with the PCN Clinical Pharmacist in accordance with agreed prescribing standard operating procedures.

Support specific work on prescribing initiatives under the supervision of the Clinical Pharmacist.

Promote cost effective, safe, evidence-based prescribing in accordance with local formulary, medication optimisation strategy and national guidance.

Awareness of, and compliance with, all relevant local/clinical policies and guidelines.

Participate in and be responsible for monitoring progress against key performance targets.

Contribute to the development of the role.

Direct patient services:

Process repeat medication requests, including the conversion of acute requests to repeat medicines, changing quantities of medicines, syncing patient medications, e- RD, arranging compliance aids etc.

Issuing prescriptions in line with agreed clinical protocols and within your competency and directing queries to appropriate clinician.

Dealing with medication queries from patients as well as queries from clinicians in line with agreed protocols.

Provide medication review services to patients via clinics in practices, domiciliary visits and in residential and nursing homes and to deliver pharmaceutical care plans that maximise cost-effective prescribing and improve the quality of patient care.

Update and maintain accurate patient medication records on the practice clinical computer system, including patient contact, advice given and action taken.

Provide advice and guidance to patients regarding medication optimisation and lifestyle e.g. inhaler techniques.

Support the safe and effective repeat prescribing of high-risk medicines ensuring that regular monitoring as per local/shared care guidance is taking place.

Conduct medication reconciliation following discharge from hospital, clinic visits and other transfers of care (e.g. new patients, care home residents), to ensure that medication changes are safely implemented in a timely fashion with the support of the pharmacist.

Utilise and demonstrate sensitive communication styles to ensure patients are fully informed and consent to treatment.

Use highly developed knowledge and skills to provide high standards of patient centred care.

Improving outcomes:

Assist the Clinical Pharmacist with data analysis of prescribing behaviour in line with NICE guidance and local clinical commissioning directives.

Support the development and review of medicines audits.

Support the achievement of the practices prescribing targets, e.g. QOF, IIF.

Engagement with partner organisations:

Liaise with secondary, community and primary care colleagues to ensure correct medicines are continued following the transfer of care.

Liaise with the wider health care team including primary care staff, community nurses and care home staff with medication queries.

Link with hospital and community pharmacy colleagues to address discrepancies, supply issues and queries within competency.

Attend relevant meetings in relation to prescribing or medicines-related initiatives.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Registered with GPhC
• BTEC/NVQ level 3 or equivalent in pharmacy services
• Alternative approved training pathway, e.g. Primary Care Pharmacy Educational Pathway (PCPEP) or Medicines Optimisation in Care Homes (MOCH)

Experience

• Evidence of Continuing Professional Development and ongoing commitment.
• Demonstrable and significant post qualification experience as a technician in primary care, hospital or community pharmacy.
• Ability to dispense prescriptions, to the highest standard in a pharmacy dispensary situation if required, which will include pharmaceutical technical procedures requiring use of manipulation of tools and a high level of accuracy. E.g. preparation of extemporaneous pharmaceutical preparation.
• Excellent communication skills both verbally and written
• Negotiating skills
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Competency in use of IT and commonly used software packages (e.g. MSOffice)
• Ability to work independently, and plan and organise own movements to deliver agreed work within an agreed time frame.
• Ability to prioritise work and work to deadlines
• Able to cope and function effectively when working in a pressurised environment.
• Ability to travel to locations across the PCN

• Experience of working within primary care
• Experience of project management
• Working knowledge of prescribing data and general GP practice computer systems

Knowledge and skills

• An appreciation of the nature of GPs and general practices.
• Broad knowledge of clinical governance
• Ability to record accurate clinical notes
• Excellent communication skills (written and oral)
• Strong IT skills
• Clear, polite telephone manner
• Able to obtain and analyse complex technical information.
• Competent in the use of Office and Outlook
• Effective time management (planning and organising)
• Ability to work as a team member and autonomously
• Good interpersonal skills
• Problem solving and analytical skills
• Ability to follow clinical policy and procedure
• Ability to communicate complex and sensitive information in an understandable form to a variety of audiences
• Knowledge of the principles of medicines optimisation
• Good pharmacy knowledge including terminology
• An appreciation of the nature of primary care prescribing, concepts of rational prescribing and strategies for improvement of prescribing
• Knowledge and understanding of pharmacy law and ethics and current legislation
• Understanding of current national policies, in particular those that impact on medicines management services

• Experience with audits and audit programmes
• Experience with clinical risk management
• EMIS and/or VISION user 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.

Employer details

Employer name

Greenwich Health Ltd

Address

25 John Wilson Street

London

SE18 6PZ

https://www.greenwich-health.com/