Job description
Medicines Management Pharmacy Technician - Primary Care (Wallsend Primary Care Network)
We have a great opportunity for pharmacy technicians wishing to develop their careers as part of our progressive team, with a national reputation for innovation and development. Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust has a diverse and supportive clinical pharmacy team with a proven track record of providing high quality, patient-centred care. Our pharmacy technicians undertake patient-facing clinical roles, using their skills as part of a multidisciplinary team to support patients wherever they are across primary and secondary care (hospital, home, or care home).
Our team offer you a unique clinical, patient-facing role that allows pharmacy technicians to develop or maintain their skills within primary care. Where desired, our large pharmacy team can allow job plans to be structured to work across both primary and secondary care. For pharmacy technicians looking to work and develop entirely within the primary care setting, full access to acute trust teams and resources will help to enable system wide approach to patient care, and designed around you to make the most of your skill set.
We are looking for enthusiastic pharmacy technicians to support medicines optimisation across Wallsend Primary Care Network to help meet their population needs. This clinical patient-facing role will involve delivering the national agenda for primary care through medicines optimisation stewardship, enhancing medicines support for care homes and their residents, supporting patients at transitions of care and providing medicines management support and leadership across the network.
You may already be a pharmacy technician working in general practice or an experienced pharmacy technician ready to take the next step in your career. You will be enrolled in (or have qualified from) the CPPE primary care pharmacy education training pathway that will equip you for this role.
We manage three major locality hospitals at North Tyneside, Wansbeck and Hexham, plus a number of smaller community hospitals and clinics from Tynemouth to Berwick on Tweed, covering one of the largest geographical areas of any NHS trust in the country. Leading in innovation and quality – opening a state of the art Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital, the first of its kind in England.
In addition to acute hospital pharmacy services we provide pharmacists and technicians to four of our local primary care networks with a combined population of 190,000. We also deliver locally commissioned integrated pharmacy services to care homes, frailty, living well with pain, palliative care and other national priorities such as CVD prevention/research.
We are one of the best performing NHS organisations in England, with a focus on staff experience as well as the experience of patients.
- 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. optimising inhaler technique). Utilise consultation skills to work in partnership with patients to ensure they use their medicines effectively.
- Support medicines reconciliation for patients at transitions of care, linking with community pharmacy and secondary care colleagues and ensuring effective delivery of the NHS Discharge Medicines Service where applicable.
- Support the clinical pharmacists in delivering structured medication reviews (SMR) for patients to help reduce medicines-related harm.
- 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 to local arrangements.
- Support the PCN in implementing efficient ordering and return processes and reducing medication wastage, including Electronic Repeat Dispensing (eRD).
- Develop relationships with other pharmacy professionals and members of the multi-disciplinary team to support integration across health and social care including primary care, community pharmacy, secondary care and mental health.
- 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 the Network Contract Directed Enhanced Service (DES), including Investment and Impact Fund.