Pharmacy Technician

The following are the core responsibilities of the Pharmacy Technician. There may be on occasion, a requirement to carry out other tasks; this will be dependent upon factors such as workload and staffing levels: Medicines optimisation - achieving targets through quality improvement and implementing cost-effective prescribing, addressing poor adherence to medication and ensuring patients are able to take the medicines they are prescribed. Transfer of care - support medication reviews and medicines reconciliation for patients moving across care settings (i.e. discharged from hospital back into community, discharged from hospital to care home, D2A settings) Shared care - implementing and monitoring shared care protocols and liaising with specialist pharmacists for more complex patients. Clinical Governance - Developing, reviewing and implementing policy (within general practice and cross-sector for example with care homes) relating to medicines safety, repeat prescribing and clinical pathways, and conducting patient safety audits. Data interpretation - using prescribing data to implement cost effective prescribing measures Training and education - training other healthcare professionals (for example in general practice or in care homes) on repeat prescription processes, local formularies and quality improvement projects. Error reporting - escalating patient safety concerns and using tools such as Learning from Patient Safety Events (https://record.learn-from-patient-safety-events.nhs.uk) to report patient safety errors Medication reviews - undertaking level 1 medication reviews (technical review of patients medicines without the patient necessarily being present). Management and leadership - Leadership in quality improvement projects such as repeat prescription processes and development of the technician role within practice. Repeat prescription management - leading the process by implementing policies to ensure patient safety measures are met and medication waste is monitored. Clinical roles - pharmacy technicians can be trained on basic clinical assessment (for example manual BP and pulse checks) and can support the practice team to conduct clinical reviews within scope of practice for example hypertension and primary prevention clinics. Carry out housekeeping whilst in patient records e.g. dose optimisation and medicines synchronisation Participate in practice meetings, patient participation groups and other meetings to improvement engagement of the role of the pharmacy technician and promote issues relevant to prescribing and medicines optimisation. Liaise with other pharmacy stakeholders e.g. ICB Medicines Optimisation Team, Community Pharmacy Teams, Hospital Pharmacy Teams as needed. To be responsible for organising their own workload to meet set deadlines To undertake and participate in prescribing audits to facilitate quality improvement and changes in practice Work with the Clinical Pharmacist team to ensure that all major MHRA drug alerts, here appropriate and within level of competence are acted upon within The Cambridge Practice over an appropriate time-frame to advise on any medication changes that occur as a result To carry out other duties which are appropriate to the skills and competencies of the post holder and grade of the post as the priorities of the service change. Mentorship and support to Technician Team and internal trainees and external trainees where needed e.g. pre-registration Technicians, Trainee Pharmacists. Personal & Professional Development Actively participate in any external training programs required through continued NHS funding Meet the GPhC CPD requirements for registration on an annual basis Complete any internal training required by The Cambridge Practice Job description Job responsibilities The following are the core responsibilities of the Pharmacy Technician. There may be on occasion, a requirement to carry out other tasks; this will be dependent upon factors such as workload and staffing levels: Medicines optimisation - achieving targets through quality improvement and implementing cost-effective prescribing, addressing poor adherence to medication and ensuring patients are able to take the medicines they are prescribed. Transfer of care - support medication reviews and medicines reconciliation for patients moving across care settings (i.e. discharged from hospital back into community, discharged from hospital to care home, D2A settings) Shared care - implementing and monitoring shared care protocols and liaising with specialist pharmacists for more complex patients. Clinical Governance - Developing, reviewing and implementing policy (within general practice and cross-sector for example with care homes) relating to medicines safety, repeat prescribing and clinical pathways, and conducting patient safety audits. Data interpretation - using prescribing data to implement cost effective prescribing measures Training and education - training other healthcare professionals (for example in general practice or in care homes) on repeat prescription processes, local formularies and quality improvement projects. Error reporting - escalating patient safety concerns and using tools such as Learning from Patient Safety Events (https://record.learn-from-patient-safety-events.nhs.uk) to report patient safety errors Medication reviews - undertaking level 1 medication reviews (technical review of patients medicines without the patient necessarily being present). Management and leadership - Leadership in quality improvement projects such as repeat prescription processes and development of the technician role within practice. Repeat prescription management - leading the process by implementing policies to ensure patient safety measures are met and medication waste is monitored. Clinical roles - pharmacy technicians can be trained on basic clinical assessment (for example manual BP and pulse checks) and can support the practice team to conduct clinical reviews within scope of practice for example hypertension and primary prevention clinics. Carry out housekeeping whilst in patient records e.g. dose optimisation and medicines synchronisation Participate in practice meetings, patient participation groups and other meetings to improvement engagement of the role of the pharmacy technician and promote issues relevant to prescribing and medicines optimisation. Liaise with other pharmacy stakeholders e.g. ICB Medicines Optimisation Team, Community Pharmacy Teams, Hospital Pharmacy Teams as needed. To be responsible for organising their own workload to meet set deadlines To undertake and participate in prescribing audits to facilitate quality improvement and changes in practice Work with the Clinical Pharmacist team to ensure that all major MHRA drug alerts, here appropriate and within level of competence are acted upon within The Cambridge Practice over an appropriate time-frame to advise on any medication changes that occur as a result To carry out other duties which are appropriate to the skills and competencies of the post holder and grade of the post as the priorities of the service change. Mentorship and support to Technician Team and internal trainees and external trainees where needed e.g. pre-registration Technicians, Trainee Pharmacists. Personal & Professional Development Actively participate in any external training programs required through continued NHS funding Meet the GPhC CPD requirements for registration on an annual basis Complete any internal training required by The Cambridge Practice