Assistant Technical Officer, Aseptic Services

Job overview

We are seeking a motivated and hardworking Pharmacy Assistant to join our dedicated Aseptic team at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital. In this role, you will work within the cleanrooms, accurately assembling and documenting ingredients before transferring them for preparation. You will also be involved in check and release processes, labelling and packing finished products, and ensuring the safe delivery of medicines to wards. Previous cleanroom experience is not required, as full training will be provided. This includes completing the Buttercups Support Staff Course for Pharmacy Assistants in Manufacturing, alongside relevant in-house training packages. The ideal candidate will have strong communication skills, the ability to follow standard operating procedures, and a flexible, committed approach to work. You should be able to work effectively both as part of a team and independently, managing your workload and prioritising tasks as needed

Main duties of the job

• To assist technicians and pharmacists in the provision of a safe and effective aseptic dispensing service with particular emphasis on assembly of drugs and equipment and performing specialised cleaning.
• To assist in the safe and effective supply of medicines to wards and departments.
• To assist in clerical duties
• To undertake duties to ensure stock control is maintained in the pharmacy department and on the wards to include daily stock checks, environmental monitoring and an effective stock return/disposal system.
• To support the delivery of clinical trials through the dispensing of medicines.
• To ensure the effective replenishment of emergency drug boxes, extravasation and spillage kits to wards and departments.
• Support the delivery of pharmacy dispensing services across all areas of the department.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Communication Skills 1. To answer telephone and face to face queries of a routine or basic technical nature from a wide range of staff groups, in the pharmacy, referring appropriate queries to the relevant member of the pharmacy team when necessary. 2. To assist in ensuring effective communication from ward staff to the appropriate member of the aseptic team. 3. To assist in chasing up outstanding orders that have not been delivered 4. To assist in reporting any out of stock items appropriately. 5. Record errors identified during the course of day-to-day duties.

Analytical Skills 1. To carry out routine duties including daily stock checks, stock returns, and maintenance of stock levels and checking expiry dates to ensure pharmaceutical waste is dealt with appropriately in a cost-effective manner. 2. To assist with weekly stock and expiry date checks in the pharmacy store in accordance with department procedures to ensure correct storage and turnover of stock to maintain quality and potency. 3. To carry out, monitor and check the issuing, stock control, assembly and purchasing of medicines in accordance with safe systems of work. 4. To receive drug deliveries into the pharmacy and to be responsible for checking the accuracy. 5. To ensure all delivered stock is stored correctly and rotated in line with expiry dates to include fridge lines, inflammable liquids and cytotoxic drugs. 6. To receive, check and store drug requisition orders from the pharmacy stores. 7. To assist in the monitoring of fridge temperatures and any other specified equipment as required. 8. Assist in the compilation of department statistics by sorting and filing paperwork 9. To assist in completing stock takes of all drugs 10. To assist in ordering sharps bins, cytotoxic bins and IV giving sets.

Planning and Organising Skills 1. Participate in recording in an accurate and timely manner all actions and details relating to cleaning, batch numbers and expiry dates and cleanroom activity. 2. To assist in the delivery of prepared products to wards, ensuring correct storage and security. 3. Assist in organising the delivery and tracking of prescriptions 4. To ensure overall tidiness of the working area in the Pharmacy department and to dispose of waste according to department procedure. 5. To assist in the dispatch of plates and swabs to Quality Control appropriately labelled and packaged.

Responsibility for Patient/Client Care 1. To assist in the supply of medications according to prescriptions that have been clinically screened and verified by a pharmacist in accordance with the safe systems of work as described above. 2. To dispense PN against prescriptions that have been clinically screened and verified by a pharmacist in accordance with the safe systems of work. 3. To assist in the assembly of drugs and sterile equipment according to the product worksheet. 4. To complete worksheet details including batch number and expiry in accordance with SOP’s. 5. To carry out the transfer of drugs and sterile equipment into sterile preparation area according to standard operating procedures (SOP). 6. To label completed aseptically prepared products and outer containers and ensuring product segregation. 7. To participate in specialised cleaning and disinfection of walls, floors, ceilings and all equipment within the cleanroom according to SOP’s. 8. To efficiently deal with any delivery requests from wards on a daily basis and in a timely manner to ensure best service to patient and follow up any outstanding orders/deliveries to the wards on a daily basis. 9. To follow regional guidelines for the receipt and quarantine of unlicensed specialist medicines. 10. To dispense non-complex inpatient and outpatient prescriptions. 11. To carry out routine procedures associated with the packaging of medicines including cytotoxic, CIVAS and PN following standard operating procedures.

Responsibility for Policy/Service Development 1. To participate in the development of the Aseptic unit and / or service via meetings, feedback, participation with validation plans.

Responsibility for Financial & Physical Resources 1. Accurately issue IV fluids and medicines against a worksheet to the correct ward and/or cost centre in a timely manner using the Pharmacy stock control system. 2. To assist in stock control and rotation of the Quality Control agar plates and swabs used to perform environmental monitoring. 3. To assist in replenishing the Pharmacy night room. 4. To assist in the replenishment of and rotation of emergency boxes, spill kits and extravasation kits on the wards and departments.

Responsibility for Human Resources 1. To assist in the training of new pharmacy assistants and student pharmacy technicians.

Responsibility for Information Resources 1. To use the pharmacy computer system to issue, label and return medicines in accordance with level of training provided. 2. To participate in generating appropriate labels using pharmacy IT computer software for Quality Control purposes.

Responsibility for Research and Development 1. To participate in the dispensing of clinical trials and unlicensed medicines as required.

Applicant requirements

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.