Job summary
- Main area
- Pharmacy
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 4
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time
- Part time
- Job ref
- 432-HR24-25
- Employer
- East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Ipswich Hospital
- Town
- Ipswich
- Salary
- £26,530 - £29,114 per annum pro rata
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 17/04/2025 23:59
Employer heading

Lead Pharmacy Assistant – Dispensary Services
NHS AfC: Band 4
We are one of the largest NHS organisation in England. Our scale provides exciting opportunities for development, innovation, research, education and training.
Talk to us about our range of flexible working opportunities, apprenticeships and staff benefits
Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) is at the heart of all we do; and it forms part of the ESNEFT’s core activities. The Trust operates and relies on everyone treating each other with dignity and respect, to receive equitable and fair treatment in the implementation of Policies, Procedures and in its Practices, to foster positive work relationships, and finally to act with integrity as a professional within ESNEFT as well as a representative of the NHS as a whole. The EDI Agenda reflects the Trust values such as Optimistic, Appreciative and Kind. In line with the NHS Long Term Plan, People Plan, People Promise and a Model Employer intrinsic in the Equality Diversity and Inclusion Agenda, we consistently strive to improve, to take the learning into Action for a better ESNEFT.
If you are passionate about patient care and want to develop your skills and knowledge then we are keen to hear from you.
Job overview
Have you got the enthusiasm and passion to take the next step in your career in an acute hospital pharmacy department?
We have created exciting new roles for pharmacy assistants who have recent pharmacy practice experience to develop their leadership skills and become a Lead Pharmacy Assistant. You will contribute to our team by delivering a safe and effective pharmacy dispensary service.
You will play a pivotal role in the delivery of a high quality service to our patients and other hospital service users by taking on the role of shift manager for our 3 different dispensaries, co-ordinating workflow and overseeing our pharmacy assistants.
Using your extensive knowledge of pharmacy practice, you will use your experience to answer queries from colleagues, patients and other service users to ensure the provision of a professional friendly service.
In order to help you make this next step in your career, support and training will be provided. This includes support and mentorship from the Dispensary Managers, pharmacy related courses and in-house training including the Trust’s Emerging Leader Course.
This role will require weekend working and is based within the Pharmacy department at Ipswich Hospital.
Main duties of the job
Details about our pharmacy service - https://esneft.pagetiger.com/buqzfou/1
- Day to day leadership responsibility for ensuring that operational activity at Dispensary level is undertaken. Provide direct line management to the Dispensing Assistant team including conducting appraisals, drafting rotas, monitoring attendance and absence levels and monitoring compliance with mandatory training requirements.
- Be the first point of contact for multidisciplinary staff requiring support and/or advice relating to this service
- Proactively co-ordinate and manage the flow of work through Dispensary Services to ensure an efficient and safe Pharmacy service to patients and staff.
- Assisting the Chief Pharmacy Technician and Dispensary Manager with the induction, training and development of staff working within dispensary services.
- Work collaboratively with wider Pharmacy colleagues to ensure the optimal and cost effective use of medicines within the dispensary environments; minimising drug wastage accordingly.
Working for our organisation
We are ESNEFT and we provide hospital and community health services to almost one million people across east Suffolk and north Essex. Our dedicated staff deliver care from acute hospitals in Colchester and Ipswich, community hospitals, surgeries, community clinics and in patients’ own homes
We are one of the largest NHS organisations in England, employing more than 12,000 staff
We pride ourselves on supporting our staff. We offer a wide range of training and development opportunities, as well as flexible working options
Along with supporting you to achieve your career goals we offer a generous pension scheme, unsocial hours payments (where applicable), 27 days annual leave on commencement (pro rata) and access to a range of NHS discounts. Our Staff Health and Wellbeing programme offer a variety of services
Our philosophy is that Time Matters to everyone. Across the Trust, we concentrate on improving the things we do and removing those which cause time delays for our staff and patients
We are investing in our commitment to Time Matters with a partnership with leading electronic patient record (EPR) supplier Epic. This digital transformation will bring what’s widely regarded as the world’s best EPR system to ESNEFT, transforming life in hospital for staff and patients
If you are passionate about patient care and want to develop your skills and knowledge, then we want to hear from you
Find out about living and working here - www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkPu7HphU8A
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
For full details of the responsibilities and duties of this role please see the attached job description.
Person specification
Experience
Essential criteria
- Recent experience of working within Pharmacy practice
- Experience in dealing with patients, the general public and multidisciplinary healthcare colleagues
- Demonstrated experience of multi-disciplinary working within a team
- Working with patient identifiable and/or commercially sensitive information
- Experience of multi-organisational/partnership working
- Understanding of the need for delivering a cost effective service
- Experience of supervising/managing or mentoring
Desirable criteria
- Experience of working within a hospital pharmacy or other relevant clinical/operational environment
- Experience of leading a team and responsibility for training, developing and appraising a team
- Experience of service development across a range of deliverables and monitoring compliance/progress
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- NVQ Level 2 Certificate in Pharmacy Service Skills or equivalent and evidence of additional CPD/Training/Knowledge equivalent to NVQ Level 3
Desirable criteria
- Level 3 qualification in a relevant subject/willingness to undertake
Knowledge
Essential criteria
- Importance of the optimal financial usage and stock control of medicines
- Hospital Dispensing processes
- Understands the issues in handling materials which are hazardous
- Knowledge of pharmaceutical products/medicines
- Principles of team leadership
Desirable criteria
- Distribution practices and supply chain logistics
Applicant requirements
The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Courtney Howlett
- Job title
- Lead Pharmacy Technician
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 07926066054
If you have problems applying, contact
- Address
-
Colchester General Hospital
- Telephone
- 07789651269
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