Job Description

Lincoln Healthcare Partnership (LHP) PCN is made up of two practices (Brayford Medical Practice and Heart of Lincoln Medical Group) based in central Lincoln with a patient population of just under 40,000 people.

Job Summary:

We are looking for a skilled, experienced and enthusiastic Pharmacy Technician, to work with the Complex Care Team, at Lincoln Healthcare Partnership Primary Care Network (PCN). An exciting new team with a goal to provide, joined up, pro-active care for those with complex health and social conditions, requiring multiple services to support them in their place of residence. Working along side the High intensity pilot.

The successful candidate will work with the team to ensure safe, accurate, timely supply of prescribed medication, being part of a multidisciplinary healthcare team.

The Pharmacy Technician plays an important role, complementing clinical pharmacists, community pharmacists and other members of the Primary Care Network multi- disciplinary team. Pharmacy technicians' core role responsibilities cover clinical, and technical and administrative categories.

The purpose of the role is to lead improvements to maximise safe, cost-effective best practice in prescribing to improve the quality of patient care. The post holder will help patients to get the best from their medicines by switching medications to agreed and approved protocols, improving repeat prescribing processes in General Practice, including promotion of repeat dispensing and online ordering, minimising clinical risk and aiming to reduce wasted medicines.

Primary 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:

a. Undertake patient facing and patient supporting roles to ensure effective medicines use, through shared decision-making conversations with patients.

b. Carry out medicines optimisation tasks including effective medicine administration (e.g. checking inhaler technique), supporting medication reviews and medicines reconciliation. Where required, utilise consultation skills to work in partnership with patients to ensure they use their medicines effectively.

c. As determined by the PCN, support medication reviews and medicines reconciliation for new care home patients and synchronising medicines for patient transfers between care settings, linking with local community pharmacies

d. Support in Structured Medication Reviews (SMR)

e. Provide specialist expertise, where competent, to address both the public health and social care needs of patients, including lifestyle advice, service information, and help in tackling local health inequalities.

f. Take a central role in the clinical aspects of shared care protocols and liasing with Clinical Pharmacists for more complex patients.

g. Support initiatives for antimicrobial stewardship to reduce inappropriate antibiotic prescribing locally.

h. Assist in the delivery of medicines optimisation and management incentive schemes and patient safety audits

i. Support the PCN multi-disciplinary team to ensure efficient medicines optimisation processes are being followed.

j. Implement efficient ordering and return processes and reducing medication wastage.

k. Provide training and support on the legal, safe and secure handling of medicines, including the implementation of the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS).

l. Promotion of Electronic Repeat Dispensing (eRD) and online ordering

m. 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.

n. Support practice reception teams in streaming general prescription requests, so as to allow GPs and clinical pharmacists to review the more clinically complex requests.

o. Support the implementation of national prescribing policies and guidance within GP practices, care homes and other primary care settings.

p. Support the PCN to deliver on QIPP agenda, QOF and locally commissioned enhanced services

q. Supporting quality improvement measures and contributing to the Quality and Outcomes Framework and enhanced services;

r. Support the PCN in reviewing and developing practice policies for CQC requirements

s. Develop a culture that promotes equality and values diversity. The post-holder must be aware of and committed to the Equality and Diversity policies of the appointing PCN and comply with all the requirements of these policies and actively promote Equality and Diversity issues relevant to the post.

t. Ensure the principles of openness, transparency and candour are observed and upheld in all working practices.

u. The post holder will have, or acquire through training provided by the organisation, the appropriate level of safeguarding and knowledge, skills and practice required for the post and be aware of and comply with the organisations safeguarding protection policies and procedures.

v. Ensure that any infection prevention and control issues are reported to the line manager/Infection Prevention and Control

Person Specification:

Essential:

Professional registration with GPhC
Meets the standard qualification and training requirements as specified by the GPhC criteria to register as a Pharmacy Technician.
Enrolled in, undertaking or qualified from, an approved training pathway. For example, the Primary Care Pharmacy Educational Pathway (PCPEP) or Medicines Optimisation in Care Homes (MOCH)*

Evidence of continued professional development (CPD)*

Experience of working as a qualified registered pharmacy technician in primary care, community or hospital pharmacy.*

Computer literate with an ability to use the required SystmOne and Microsoft Office packages*

Able to analyse and interpret prescribing data*

Has attention to detail, able to work accurately, identifying errors quickly and easily able to effectively manage allocated resources*

Has a planned and organised approach with an ability to prioritise their own workload to meet strict deadlines.*

Able to think analytically; anticipating obstacles and thinking ahead; using analytical techniques to draw logical solutions to problems.*

Excellent communication skills, verbal and written, with the ability to adjust communication style and content to suit the audience*

Influencing and negotiating skills*

An excellent understanding of data protection and confidentiality issues.*

Personal Qualities:

Works effectively independently and as a member of a team
Flexible approach to meet service needs and ensure a stakeholder focused response
Self-motivated and proactive*

Able to undertake the demands of the post with reasonable adjustments if required
Independently mobile to be able to work across several sites and travel to meet with stakeholders
Adaptability, flexibility and ability to cope with uncertainty and change
Demonstrate ability to work in a busy environment; ability to deal with both urgent and important tasks and to prioritise effectively whilst also supporting others
Excellent time keeping and prioritisation skills
Working under appropriate clinical supervision to ensure safe, effective and efficient use of medicines

Desirable:

BTEC/NVQ level 3 or equivalent in pharmaceutical sciences
Demonstrate ability to influence and persuade partners and stakeholders of the respective merits of different options, innovations, new opportunities and challenges.*

Understand the aims of current healthcare policy within the PCN

Generic Responsibilities:

All staff have a duty to conform to the following:

Equality, diversity and inclusion

A good attitude and positive action towards ED&I, creates an environment where all individuals can achieve their full potential. Creating such an environment is important for three reasons: it improves operational effectiveness, it is morally the right thing to do, and it is required by law.

Patients and their families have the right to be treated fairly and to be routinely involved in decisions about their treatment and care. They can expect to be treated with dignity and respect and will not be discriminated against on any grounds including age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation. Patients have a responsibility to treat other patients and our staff with dignity and respect.

Staff have the right to be treated fairly in matters of recruitment and career progression. Staff can expect to work in an environment where diversity is valued, and equality of opportunity is promoted. Staff will not be discriminated against on any grounds including age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation. Staff have a responsibility to ensure that they treat our patients and their colleagues with dignity and respect.

Safety, health, environment and fire (SHEF)

We are committed to supporting and promoting opportunities for staff to maintain their health, well-being and safety. You have a duty to take reasonable care of health and safety at work for you, your team and others, and to cooperate with employers to ensure compliance with health and safety requirements. All personnel are to comply with the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, Environmental Protection Act 1990, Environment Act 1995, Fire Precautions (workplace) Regulations 1999 and other statutory legislation.

Confidentiality

We are committed to maintaining an outstanding confidential service. Patients entrust and permit us to collect and retain sensitive information relating to their health and other matters pertaining to their care. They do so in confidence and have a right to expect that all staff will respect their privacy and always maintain confidentiality. It is essential that if the legal requirements are to be met and the trust of our patients is to be retained, that all staff protect patient information and provide a confidential service.

Quality and continuous improvement (CI)

To preserve and improve the quality of our output, all personnel are required to think not only about what they do, but how they achieve it. By continually re-examining our processes, we will be able to develop and improve the overall effectiveness of the way we work. The responsibility for this rests with everyone working within the PCN and requires them to look for opportunities to improve quality and share good practice.

We continually strive to improve work processes that deliver healthcare with improved results across all areas of our service provision. We promote a culture of continuous improvement, where everyone counts, and staff are permitted to make suggestions and contributions to improve our service delivery and to enhance patient care.

Learning and development

The effective use of training and development is fundamental in ensuring that all staff are equipped with the appropriate skills, knowledge, attitude and competencies to perform their role. All staff will be required to partake in, and complete mandatory training as directed by the training coordinator, as well as participating in the practice training programme. Staff will also be permitted (subject to approval) to undertake external training courses which will enhance their knowledge and skills, progress their career and ultimately enable them to improve processes and service delivery.

Collaborative working

All staff are to recognise the significance of collaborative working. Teamwork is essential in multidisciplinary environments. Effective communication is essential, and all staff must ensure they communicate in a manner that enables the sharing of information in an appropriate manner.

Service delivery

Staff must adhere to the information contained within PCN policies and regional directives, ensuring protocols are always followed. Staff will be given detailed information during the induction process regarding policy and procedure.

Security

The security of the property is the responsibility of all personnel. Staff must ensure they always remain vigilant and report any suspicious activity immediately to their line manager. Under no circumstances are staff to share the codes for the door locks with anyone and they must ensure that restricted areas remain effectively secured.

Professional conduct

Staff are required to dress appropriately for their role. Clinical staff must dress in accordance with their role.

Leave

All personnel are entitled to take leave. Line managers are to ensure that all of their staff are afforded the opportunity to take a minimum of days leave each year depending on contracted hours and should be encouraged to take all of their leave entitlement.

Other Requirements:

Flexibility to work outside of core office hours
Disclosure Barring Service (DBS) check
Renumeration: 16.74 per hour.

Job Types: Full-time, Permanent

Work Location: In person