Senior Pharmacy Technician - SCD & WLCH

Job overview

An excellent opportunity has arisen for a suitably experienced hospital technician to apply for this post.

We require an experienced, enthusiastic and self-motivated Pharmacy Technician with excellent communication skills to join our motivated forward thinking specialist care division (SCD) & West London Children's Healthcare (WLCH) pharmacy team.  You will work in an exceptionally friendly department delivering a patient focused service.

The post holder will deliver quality care to patients at ward level as part of an efficient Medicines management system.

This includes confirming patient medication histories, assessment of patient’s own medicines, preparation and administration of medicines including IVs, counselling patients about their medicines and co-ordinating the supply of discharge medication.

The post holder may also be required to assist with general invoicing duties in pharmacy and homecare medication management.

This is an ideal opportunity for a technician who is keen to build on their obstetric and paediatric experience.

Main duties of the job

• Deliver quality care to patients at ward level as part of an efficient Medicines management system.
• This includes confirming patient medication histories, assessment of patient’s own medicines,
• Preparation and administration of medicines including IVs, counselling patients about their medicines and co-ordinating the supply of discharge medication.
• General invoicing duties in pharmacy
• Homecare medication management

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Follow relevant procedures for Medicines Management in order to deliver the service in a safe and effective manner.
• Responsible for the provision of the Medicines Management service to designated ward areas, which involves working in clinical areas unsupervised.
• Participate in the checking of in-patient, outpatient and clinical trial prescriptions by undertaking the London Pharmacy Education & Training Accredited Checking Pharmacy Technician (ACPT) scheme in line with departmental policy.
• Obtain accurate medication histories for patients on admission by liaising with the patient and/or primary care team in order to support decisions about continued care.
• Implement and maintain the Patient’s Own Drug (POD) scheme, for the designated areas (and self-administration where introduced) according to Trust Policies.
• Counsel patients in order to provide effective and appropriate advice to patients on medication use in order to ensure their understanding of their medication including benefits of their medication and possible side effects.  These may be patients with certain barriers, e.g. hearing problems, language issues.
• Deal with queries and complex issues from patients and other hospital staff.
• Effectively contend with informal / verbal complaints from ward staff or patients in the first instance before appropriate referral to line manager if necessary.
• Co-ordinate the discharge medication, bringing together patients own drug’s and newly dispensed items in advance of patient discharge and support the planning of patient discharge with respect to medication, including the transcription of requests for dispensing.
• Provide training for pharmacy staff regarding the medicines management service on the wards.
• Maintain high quality of data input of patient information into the pharmacy computer system in order to ensure excellent labeling standards for dispensed medicines.
• Support the dispensary by participating in the dispensary rota and providing a full technical service including performing the final accuracy check of screened prescriptions.
• Accurately dispense and issue prescriptions including controlled drugs in a timely fashion for inpatients, outpatients (including A&E), day case and discharge medication.
• Identify potential problems regarding the lack of availability of medicines for individual prescriptions, seeking advice on suitable alternatives or agreed delivery timetable.
• Be a role model for technical staff and actively promote the role of the pharmacy technician
• Line-manage a designated rotational pharmacy technician or pharmacy assistant, conducting performance appraisals and development reviews and if necessary, manage sickness, disciplinary or grievances.
• Participate in the training of new and junior staff, including inductions.
• Ensure that a written record of Continuing Personal Development (CPD) is maintained for review at appraisal.
• Be a robot ‘superuser’ in order to troubleshoot complex problems and maintain efficient systems within the dispensing process.
• Participate in and contribute to the development of the extension of the medicines management scheme across all wards in the hospital.
• Participate in regular medicines management training sessions for nursing staff.
• Liaise with nursing staff and patients to guarantee the service we provide meets the requirements of its users.
• Create, maintain and develop medicines management policies, procedures and standards.
• Provide administrative support for data collection for audits / projects as directed

by the LDP SCD&WLCH

• Assist in processing invoices within the main pharmacy invoicing office as required.
• Participate in the Departmental Education and Training Programme and ensure that a written record of Continual Personal Development (CPD) is maintained for review at appraisal.