Pharmacy Technician - Haywards Heath Central PCN

Reports to: PCN Clinical Pharmacists and Practice Managers

Responsible to: PCN Clinical Pharmacist

Proposed salary: Band 5.1 – 5.10 on the ABC pay scale, which is equivalent to £26,747.94 - £31,966.27 per annum dependent on experience (pro rata)

Hours of work: Full time (37.5 hours) and part-time applications will be considered

Base: The successful candidate will be based predominantly at Dolphins Practice but there may be a need to cross cover to support both Core Network Practices as needed

About Alliance for Better Care CIC

Alliance for Better Care CIC is a GP Federation that unites 47 NHS GP practices across 12 Primary Care Networks in Sussex and Surrey. We support our Primary Care colleagues as well as their patients, to transform how healthcare is managed within the community.

As a membership organisation, our focus is to work in partnership with our members and help them to improve the provision of General Practices in the local area.

We work with – and listen to – our GP Practices, PCNs, Hospitals, Community Organisations and the Third Sector. These vital partnerships ensure that, together, we deliver a truly integrated approach that offers the support and expertise needed to effectively serve our communities.

More about our organisation: www.allianceforbettercare.org

Our Values

• We innovate

If we can do something better, we should.

• We are honest

Even when it is difficult.

• We care

And put the patient first.

• We are inclusive

We listen and we act.

• We deliver

And we’re known to like a challenge!

About Haywards Heath Central PCN

Haywards Heath Central Primary Care Network is an NHS Collaboration between two GP Practices – Dolphins Practice and Newtons Practice - working together to provide enhanced access services.

Our surgery teams work closely, sharing expertise and resources to develop new services. Our vision is to continue to improve the quality of care that we provide in alignment with the needs of our patient population.

Our Primary Care Network builds on the existing primary care services and enables a greater provision of proactive, personalised and more integrated health and social care. We are supported by practitioners in additional roles who allow us to create bespoke multi-disciplinary teams based on the needs of our local population.  By working together with local community services, this allows us to make support available to people where it is most needed.

Study Leave/Training

There are opportunities for a study leave allowance.

Supervision

Regular supervisions on a one-to-one basis including an annual formal appraisal are held with a line manager. If you are in a patient-facing role, you will also receive regular Clinical Supervisions with a Clinical Supervisor. 

Benefits

• Generous annual leave allowance
• Access to NHS pension
• Bespoke training programme
• Cycle to Work Scheme
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Enhanced maternity pay
• NHS discounts
• Leadership Development Programme
• Salary sacrifice schemes – technology and electric vehicle
• Opportunities for secondments

Job summary

The post holder will work with an established Clinical Pharmacist team across the PCN and will be assigned a lead clinical and operational contact. This post is part of the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme for Primary Care Networks funded by NHS England and includes funded access to the Primary Care Pharmacy Education Pathway pilot for pharmacy technicians.

The ambition is to better utilise the role of pharmacy within primary care to pro-actively help patients stay safe and well and out of hospital as well as helping to reduce the demands on general practice.

The post holder is a Pharmacy Technician, who acts within their professional boundaries, supporting pharmacists in general practice to ensure effective and efficient use of medicines. In this role they will be supervised by a pharmacist who will develop, manage and mentor them.

The Pharmacy technicians’ core role responsibilities will cover clinical, technical and administrative categories.

The post holder will work as part of a multi-disciplinary team and this role involves provision of technical support for the pharmacy service to ensure professional operational standards and excellence in pharmaceutical care and safety are maintained.

The role will support the practices within Haywards Heath Central PCN to ensure the delivery of safe, effective and efficient systems for medicines related clinical correspondence; repeat prescribing, medicines optimisation, reducing medicines waste and maximising patient outcomes.

 The post holder will support training and development of administrators to support safe, effective and efficient processes involving medicines with a particular focus on repeat prescribing processes and will also provide support to general practice staff and patients regarding prescription and medication queries. They will also help to develop and improve repeat prescribing & medicines reconciliation processes and systems for safer prescribing.

The post holder will ensure that the service is integrated with community and hospital pharmacy to improve patient outcomes. The pharmacy technicians will work closely with the ICB Medicines Optimisation teams, community pharmacists and hospital pharmacy teams to support an integrated approach to prescribing and medicines optimisation which works towards shared goals.

The post holder will be supported in terms of professional development through a structured programme of local education. Peer-support is provided from within the PCN, supported by a local pharmacy network.

An enhanced DBS check will be carried out for all successful candidates. The post holder will occasionally be expected to travel between named practices and meetings across the patch.

The post holder will also support quality improvement and manage some aspects of the quality and outcomes framework and enhanced services and contribute to the delivery of the local medicines’ optimisation strategy.  

All Pharmacy Technicians must work within their competencies and have professional indemnity

Primary duties and areas of responsibility

Clinical

Undertake patient facing and patient supporting roles to ensure effective medicines use, through shared decision-making conversations with patients.

Carry out medicines optimisation tasks including effective medicine administration (e.g. checking inhaler technique), supporting medication reviews and medicines reconciliation. Where required, utilise consultation skills to work in partnership with patients to ensure they use their medicines effectively.

As determined by the PCN, support medication reviews and medicines reconciliation for new care home patients and synchronising medicines for patient transfers between care settings, linking with local community pharmacies.

Support the Clinical Pharmacist in Structure Medication Reviews (SMR) i.e. organise necessary monitoring tests prior to SMR.

Provide expertise to address both the public health and social care needs of patients, including lifestyle advice, service information, and help in tackling local health inequalities.

Manage shared care protocols and liaise with Clinical Pharmacists for more complex patients.

Support initiatives for antimicrobial stewardship to reduce inappropriate antibiotic prescribing locally.

Technical and Administrative  

Support the PCN multi-disciplinary team to ensure efficient medicines optimisation processes are being followed.

Support medications reconciliation for patients when they are discharged from hospital.

Implement efficient ordering and return processes and reducing medication wastage.

Provide training and support on the legal, safe and secure handling of medicines, including the implementation of the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS).

Promotion of Electronic Repeat Dispensing (eRD) and online ordering.

Develop relationships with other pharmacy professionals and members of the multidisciplinary team to support integration across health and social care including primary care, community pharmacy, secondary care and mental health.

Support practice reception teams in streaming general prescription requests, so as to allow GPs and clinical pharmacists to review the more clinically complex requests.

Support the implementation of national prescribing policies and guidance within GP practices, care homes and other primary care settings.

Support the PCN to deliver on QIPP agenda, QOF and locally commissioned enhanced services.

Support the PCN in reviewing and developing practice policies for CQC requirements.

General

The post-holder will:

• Be committed to a culture that promotes equality and values diversity, actively promote Equality and Diversity issues relevant to the post and comply with relevant ABC policies.
• Ensure the principles of openness, transparency and candour are observed and upheld in practices.
• Acquire through training provided by ABC CIC, the appropriate level of safeguarding knowledge, skills and practice required and comply with relevant ABC safeguarding policies.
• Ensure that any infection prevention and control issues are reported to the line manager in accordance with Infection Prevention and Control guidelines

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 people’s 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 all patients, carers and colleagues
• Behaving in a manner which is non-judgmental and respectful of people’s circumstances, feelings, priorities and rights

Personal/Professional development:

The post-holder will participate in any training programme implemented by the Practices/GP Federation as part of this employment, with 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 skills and activities to others who are undertaking similar work

Quality:

The post-holder will strive to maintain quality within the practices 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
• Contribute to the effectiveness of the team by reflecting on own and team activities and making suggestions on ways to improve and enhance the team’s performance
• Work effectively with individuals in other agencies to meet patients’ needs
• Effectively manage own time, workload and resources