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Job description

We are looking for a forward-thinking pharmacy technician to lead on the development and delivery of pharmacy services to the innovative Bristol North Somerset and South Gloucestershire (BNSSG) NHS@Home service in North Bristol NHS Trust (NBT).

The BNSSG NHS@Home service is a ground-breaking joint initiative by local NHS organisations that offers hospital-level care and remote monitoring in an individual’s home, providing an alternative to hospital admission, or helping them to return home promptly following an inpatient stay.

Care is provided by a team of doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals using cutting-edge monitoring devices, smartphones and other technology to check a person’s condition remotely and provide clinical advice and support.

The service uses a mixture of digital monitoring and face-to-face visits from specialist teams and has support from hospital consultant colleagues.

A number of pathways are already live in the service:

• Hospital@Home
• Outpatient Parenteral Antimicrobial Therapy (OPAT)
• Respiratory
• Heart failure
• Frailty

The Hospital@Home and OPAT pathways are very well established and embedded in practice. The respiratory, heart failure and frailty pathways are recent additions, with more pathways in development and service expansion planned, providing lots of opportunities for service development.

The position is 1WTE. Applications as a job share amounting to 1WTE are welcomed.

Work collaboratively with a range of healthcare professionals internal and external to the Trust to develop and support a system-wide patient focused approach.

Responsible for the leadership, development and delivery of the pharmacy operational and medicines management elements of the service.

Ensure that patients receive the correct medications in a timely manner, including leading on the implementation and delivery of Homecare services in the service.

Attend multidisciplinary team meetings, develop and deliver education and training to patients, carers and healthcare professionals and support patient self-administration.

Perform clinical prioritisation to prioritise high risk patients to the pharmacists (if relevant qualification not held, a willingness to undertake).

You will report to the Highly Specialist Pharmacist BNSSG NHS@Home, working collaboratively to develop and embed the pharmacy elements of the service and ensure these are delivered in line with legislation. You will collate and analyse data to demonstrate compliance with contractual requirements and other agreed metrics, as well as plan and carry out audits and disseminate results and recommendations.

You will have excellent communication and interpersonal skills, an adaptable approach to working and good problem-solving skills. You will have excellent time management and prioritisation skills, along with the ability to manage workload of others, to work under your own initiative as well as part of a team.

North Bristol Trust is a major teaching Trust with services provided from our state-of-the-art Pharmacy Department at Southmead Hospital. Our Trust is the largest in the South-West and has a number of specialties including, Renal Medicine and Transplantation, HIV, Haematology, Urology, Neonatology, Respiratory, Neurology and Neurosurgery.

The Pharmacy Department is committed to providing a high-quality clinical service and improving patient safety through standard and innovative practices that supports our working patterns in the new hospital and our Trust’s objectives. Continuing Professional Development and integration with clinical teams is actively supported.

CORE DUTIES

• In conjunction with the Highly Specialist BNSSG NHS@Home Pharmacist, responsible for the leadership, development and delivery of the pharmacy operational and medicines management elements of the NHS@Home service.
• Responsible for ensuring the pharmacy operational and medicines management elements of the NHS@Home service are delivered in line with relevant national legislation and standards.
• Responsible for developing, implementing and reviewing medicines management procedures, guidelines and policies relating to the NHS@Home To ensure these are communicated effectively to all relevant staff groups and necessary training implemented.
• Responsible for managing pharmacy operational and medicines management service provision to the NHS@Home service, including prioritisation of work according to patient urgency, clinical need and service requirements to ensure treatment is delivered in a timely manner.
• Responsible for ensuring that patients in the NHS@Home service receive the correct medications in a timely manner. This will require liaising with a wide range of healthcare professionals, including prescribers, staff within the Trust, staff in community and Homecare providers.
• Supply medications against clinically screened prescriptions in line with Trust policies and procedures.
• Minimise waste and reduce risk to patients by ensuring appropriate storage of all medicines used in the NHS@Home
• Work collaboratively with a wide range of healthcare professionals to optimise patient care and experience and ensure patient safety, including include staff groups within the Trust, staff in other local acute Trusts, staff in community provider organisations and Homecare providers.
• Support seamless transfer of patient care into and out of the NHS@Home service, including effective and timely communication with a range of healthcare professionals internal and external to the Trust. This may involve complex or sensitive information.
• Work in conjunction with the Highly Specialist NHS@Home Pharmacist to ensure each patient has a full and timely drug history and medicines reconciliation on transfer into and out of the NHS@Home
• Answer routine queries regarding medicines from clinical staff and patients/carers and escalate where appropriate.
• Work in conjunction with the Highly Specialist NHS@Home Pharmacist and the NHS@Home team to ensure patients have appropriate monitoring of their therapy.
• Perform clinical prioritisation to prioritise high risk patients and or patients on high-risk medications. Use RAG (Red, Amber and Green) rating to prioritise patients to the Highly Specialist BNSSG NHS@Home Pharmacist (
• Contribute to improving patient safety and patient experience in relation to the NHS@Home service
• Report incidents using the Trust incident reporting system.
• Investigate complaints involving or relating to the pharmacy operational or medicines management elements of the NHS@Home service, developing and implementing necessary changes in practice to ensure improvement.
• Lead on the implementation and management of third-party provider Homecare in the NHS@Home service in conjunction with the pharmacy Homecare team. Liaise with and consent patients to this service, ensure safe working systems, relevant processes and procedures are developed and implemented. Manage SLA/contract and KPIs, attend service review meetings. Identify, report and resolve service provision failure. Audit third party provider NHS@Home Homecare services against national standards and best practice (e.g. Hackett, NHMC best practice)
• Responsible for collating and analysing the required data to provide reports on medication consumption, financial indicators and assurance of prescribing within the NHS@Home service to ensure the Trust meets relevant contractual, CQUIN and KPI requirements.
• Develop and provide education and training for a variety of healthcare professionals on the pharmacy operational and medicines management elements of the NHS@Home
• Provide information on pharmacy elements of the NHS@Home service to support induction programmes for new staff.
• Plan, develop and deliver training and oversee assessment and sign off of demonstrated competency for pharmacy staff to provide cover to the NHS@Home service out of hours/during periods of annual leave.
• Provide information in a variety of formats to patients / carers to support and optimise therapy.
• Determine patients’ compliance with medication regime using a variety of sources as appropriate.
• Work with the NHS@Home team to develop and implement processes to support patient self-administration.
• Support the Trust antimicrobial stewardship programme and be an Antibiotic Guardian.
• Identify and implement strategies to ensure cost-effective use of resources and product rationalisation in the NHS@Home
• Plan and carry out audits of the pharmacy operational and medicines management elements of the NHS@Home service and disseminate findings and recommendations for improvement to appropriate staff groups.
• Participate in Quality Improvement projects relating to the NHS@Home service and other project work required to develop the NHS@Home clinical pharmacy service as required.
• Participate in MDT meetings regarding patient care when required.
• Represent NBT pharmacy at NHS@Home meetings as required.
• Attend national conferences relevant to NHS@Home and share learning with the pharmacy and NHS@Home
• Participate in service review meetings for NHS@Home Homecare medicines as required
• Work with the Highly Specialist NHS@Home Pharmacist and lead clinical pharmacy technician to review current levels of service, identify future developments and measure relevant activity and output of the NHS@Home
• Undertake and record CPD relevant to personal and organisational needs.
• Be a role model for staff.
• To act professionally in accordance with medicines legislation, the Code of Ethics of the General Pharmaceutical Council, and Trust policies and procedures.

GENERAL DUTIES

• Dispense prescriptions for inpatients, outpatients and discharge medication – this may involve the assessment of Patients’ Own Medicines where appropriate. Dispensing includes clinical trial and ‘named patient’ medicines, Controlled Drugs, extemporaneous preparation when necessary, private prescriptions and assembly of compliance aids.
• Actively involved in assessing ‘Patients Own Medicines’.
• Actively involved in interviewing patients on the ward to assess the medication they have at home.
• All administrative procedures associated with the above (charging/exemption and completing necessary records).
• Issue dispensed medicines to patients/carers and provide appropriate advice.
• Issue Controlled Drugs to wards and theatres. Record issues, returns and receipts in order to maintain an accurate stock balance.
• Record all transactions using the Pharmacy computer system to ensure stock levels are accurate and up to date.
• Prepare orders for wards, other departments and outside units.
• Answer routine queries from ward staff and patients.
• Carry out dispensary-based duties as an accredited checking technician on a sessional basis.
• Check dispensing for inpatients, outpatients and discharge medication arising from prescriptions previously screened by a pharmacist.
• Final check screened ward based TTAs.
• Check ward orders/requisitions processed in the dispensary
• Participate in the weekend, bank holiday and late duty service. As part of this, act as the dispensary lead with responsibility for managing workflow and workload of dispensary staff.
• Any other duties, which may be required by the Director of Pharmacy for the benefit of the service.
• All Pharmacy staff involved in the supply of medicines need to ensure they and the process of supply is compliant with all relevant legislation.
• For stock supply (including any medicine supplied under the WDA (H) Licence) Good Distribution Practice (EU GDP 2013/C 343/01) must be followed at all times.
• Staff have a personal responsibility to ensure that all activities undertaken within NBT Pharmacy Services are compliant with Good Distribution Practice (EU GDP 2013/C 343/01) and all relevant department procedures are understood and followed appropriately.
• All staff must complete the required training sessions in relation to both GDP and WDA (H) annually as identified by the Pharmacy training team.