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Job summary

Main area
General Practice
Grade
NHS AfC: Band 5
Contract
Permanent
Hours
  • Full time
  • Part time
  • Flexible working
  • Compressed hours
37.5 hours per week
Job ref
363-PC5131878-A
Employer
East London NHS Foundation Trust
Employer type
NHS
Site
Cauldwell Medical Centre
Town
Bedford
Salary
£29,970 - £36,483 Per Annum, Pro Rata
Salary period
Yearly
Closing
02/10/2024 23:59

Employer heading

East London NHS Foundation Trust logo

PCN Pharmacy Technician

NHS AfC: Band 5

Our Offer

Our mission is to provide patients at Cauldwell Medical Centre with high quality, easy and convenient access to a GP or nurse when they need it. Our core values and principles are:

  • Patient-centric – Putting patients at the heart of everything we do.
  • Quality – Providing the highest standard of care and treatment.
  • Ethical – Operating within an ethical framework through openness and transparency.
  • Passionate – Being passionate about enhancing caring for our patients.
  • Teamwork – Supporting and sharing with all members of our team and partners.

The surgery has an active Patient Participation Group to represent patient views and help us plan for the future.

Continued improvement led by staff and patients in partnership has seen Leighton Road Surgery (LRS) rated as ‘Good’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

In addition, the following perks are also available:

  • Good parking
  • Canteen on site 
  • Smallish modern surgery 
  • Great diverse population 
  • Quality Improvement (QI) embedded approach to innovation and continuous improvement
  • Great leadership team
  • Staff development opportunities
  • Informal on-site visits encouraged

Working As A Team

We are always looking to find people who share our passion for providing the kind of care we would want for the people we love. We also want to find talented people who want to work as part of a diverse team, provide leadership and try new things. The role of clinicians and administrators in primary care is evolving, as a part of our primary care team you will use your skills to help contribute to people’s care. Any job in primary care is a challenging job and for our teams to work together our GP’s, nurses, allied health professionals and our administrators all need a system designed to support everyone, so that we can do the best for our patients.

About ELFT

ELFT has been recognised as a centre of excellence for Primary Care and health care, innovation and improvement. So it is a very exciting time for you to come and work for us. Our mission is to make a positive difference to people's lives by improving quality of life for all we serve. Our values are: We Care, We Respect, We are Inclusive – so we are looking for people who live and breathe these qualities when supporting service users and carers, and in their relationships with colleagues in the Trust and our partner organisations.

Our primary care directorate team are developing and working on several exciting new concepts to strengthen and provide resilience to general practice. Tackling health inequalities, involving patients, using quality improvement and being a ‘good neighbour’ to the other organisations we work with are all part of how we work every day. The successful candidate will be part of a team helping to achieve our aim to improve the lives of those we serve. 

We invest in our people and have two key areas of focus- the well-being of the people we work with and developing our team. Our dedicated well-being champion and our primary care skills academy help us to achieve our aims of having a happy team that feel cared for, respected and included. 

Job overview

***This post is based at Cauldwell Medical Centre, a General Practice Surgery within East London Foundation Trust***

Hybrid working will be available,  at the manager's discretion. 

East Bedford PCN have an exciting opportunity for a hardworking, enthusiastic and innovative pharmacy technician to join our Primary Care Network.

The Pharmacy Technician will support the Clinical Pharmacist at Cauldwell Medical Centre to deliver safe and cost-effective practice in prescribing. The post holder will help patients to get the best from their medicines by switching medications according to best practice; improving repeat prescribing processes; promoting repeat dispensing and online ordering; minimising clinical risk, and reducing waste. 
 
 

Main duties of the job

  • Support the Clinical Pharmacist to deliver the Clinical Pharmacy in General Practice model
  • Undertake medicines switches in line with practice and CCG agreed protocols – reviewing patients’ records, amending records and informing patients
  • Report key performance indicators to demonstrate added value for patients and general practice in accordance with NICE guidance, including medicines optimisation, prescribing data, cost savings and patient outcomes.
  • Support the delivery of the Medicines Optimisation Strategy
  • Handle information, which may be sensitive, complex or confidential, in accordance with the Data Protection Act; Caldicott Guidelines and the Confidentiality Code of Conduct
  • To be responsible for the planning of own workload, and to meet set deadlines
  • To utilise GP clinical systems to conduct prescribing audits, and to share the outcomes of clinical audits to facilitate improvement and changes in practice
  • As instructed by the CCG Medicines Safety Officer, ensure that all major MHRA drug alerts, where appropriate and within level of competence, are acted upon within practices over an appropriate time frame and to advise on any medication changes that occur as a result
  • To undertake learning and development to ensure knowledge and skills are kept up to date
  • 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

Working for our organisation

About the PCN
 
Putnoe Medical Centre, Linden Road Surgery, London Road Health Centre and Cauldwell Medical Centre, stand together as East Bedford Primary Care Network jointly delivering services that improve outcomes for our combined population of 50,000+ registered patients.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

You will have the following skills/experience:.

  • Professional registration with GPhC
  • BTEC/NVQ level 3 or equivalent in pharmaceutical sciences 
  •  Experience of working as a qualified, registered pharmacy technician in primary care, community or hospital pharmacy
  • Awareness of general practice and the agenda for medicines optimisation
  • Good clinical pharmacy knowledge including terminology
 

Person specification

Qualifications and Experience

Essential criteria
  • Professional registration with GPhC
  • BTEC/NVQ level 3 or equivalent in pharmaceutical sciences
  • Experience of working as a qualified, registered pharmacy technician in primary care, community or hospital pharmacy
Desirable criteria
  • Postgraduate qualifications of a relevant nature eg FdSc in Medicines Management/Pharmacy Services; BTEC Therapeutics
  • Evidence of continued professional development (CPD)
  • Ability to influence stakeholders of the respective merits of different options or innovations

Knowledge and Understanding

Essential criteria
  • Awareness of general practice and the agenda for medicines optimisation
  • Good clinical pharmacy knowledge including terminology
  • Knowledge of pharmacy law and ethics
Desirable criteria
  • Appreciation of the opportunities to delivery NHS priorities, and requirements for financial balance and quality
  • An appreciation of the nature of primary care prescribing, rational prescribing, and strategies for improving prescribing

Skills and Competencies

Essential criteria
  • Computer literate and familiar with Microsoft Office packages
  • Able to analyse and interpret prescribing data
  • Has attention to detail, able to work accurately, identifying errors quickly and easily
  • Has an organised approach with ability to prioritise own workload to meet deadlines
  • Able to think analytically, anticipating obstacles and thinking ahead
  • Excellent communication skills, verbal and written
  • An understanding of data protection and confidentiality issues
Desirable criteria
  • Knowledge of SystmOne (GP clinical system)
  • Understands healthcare policy and the implications for Clinical Pharmacy
  • Influencing and negotiating skills

Attributes

Essential criteria
  • Works effectively independently and as a member of a team
  • Self-motivated and proactive
  • Commitment to improve skills in new areas of work
  • Able to undertake the demands of the post with reasonable adjustments if required
  • Excellent time keeping and prioritisation skills
Desirable criteria
  • Flexible approach to meet service needs and ensure a stakeholder focused response

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Capital Nurse, LondonCommitted to being an Inclusive EmployerApprenticeships logoNo smoking policyPositive about disabled peopleAge positiveHSJ Best places to workArmed Forces Covenant (Silver Award)Mindful employer.  Being positive about mental health.Disability confident employerCare quality commission - OutstandingStonewall equality policy. Equality and justice for lesbians, gay men, bisexual and trans people.

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

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.

Documents to download

Apply online now

Further details / informal visits contact

Name
Gogo Abbey
Job title
Senior Clinical Pharmacist & Deputy Clinical Lead
Email address
[email protected]
Telephone number
07404120124
Additional information

The preferred contact method will be by email to [email protected]

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