Job Description

Mid Devon Healthcare is the Primary Care Network supporting Bow Medical Practice, Redlands Primary Care and Wallingbrook Health Group.

In 2019 Primary Care Networks were set up by the NHS to help support General Practice. It enabled the practices to recruit different skills to support the existing GPs and Nursing teams in practice. Mid Devon Healthcare now has 17 members of staff of which 13 are involved in front line patient care. The PCN clinical team includes Pharmacists, Health Coaches, Social Prescribers and Occupational Therapist.

The Mid Devon Healthcare Primary Care Network has an exciting opportunity for a

new pharmacy technician post in primary care. The post holder will be an integral part of the general practice/primary care team, working as and when required in the network practices and across Mid Devon Healthcare PCN. Those practices are:

Redlands Primary Care

Bow Medical Practice

Wallingbrook Health Centre

Clinical Pharmacy in General Practice is part of an exciting programme of transformation

to develop a new model of care which addresses our ambition to deliver person-centred,

coordinated care across Mid Devon Healthcare Primary Care Network (PCN). The

overall aim is to pro-actively help patients stay safe and well and out of hospital as well as

helping to reduce the demands on general practice.

Pharmacy technicians play an important role, complementing clinical pharmacists,

community pharmacists and other members of the PCN multi-disciplinary team. Pharmacy

technicians are different to clinical pharmacists as they are not able to prescribe or make

clinical decisions, instead working under supervision to ensure effective and efficient use

of medicines.

Pharmacy technicians' core role responsibilities will cover clinical, technical and

administrative categories.

The primary care pharmacy technician role is intended to support the Primary Care

Pharmacists to ensure the delivery of safe, effective and efficient systems for repeat

prescribing, medicines optimisation, reducing medicines waste and maximising patient

outcomes.

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 online ordering, minimising clinical risk and aiming to reduce wasted

medicines.

In addition, the post holder will be responsible for encouraging the development of better

understanding of the principles of medicines optimisation throughout the practice teams

and promoting good practice in line with therapeutic developments. This will involve

assisting the PCN in achieving national requirements, NICE implementation and utilisation of medicines optimisation initiatives.

This job is intended for a technician with up-to-date registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council. Experience in General Practice would be an advantage but is not essential.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

1. Clinical

1.1. Undertake patient facing and patient supporting roles to ensure effective medicines use,

through shared decision-making conversations with patients

1.2. 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 and to undertake community

domiciliary visits as appropriate

1.3. 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

1.4. Support the Clinical Pharmacist in Structure Medication Reviews (SMR) i.e. organise

necessary monitoring tests prior to SMR

1.5. Provide expertise to address both the public health and social care needs of patients,

including lifestyle advice, patient information leaflets and posters, service information,

help in tackling local health inequalities and participation in patient group meetings

1.6. Manage shared care protocols and liaise with Clinical Pharmacists for more complex

patients

1.7. Participate in medication audits

1.8. Support initiatives for antimicrobial stewardship to reduce inappropriate antibiotic

prescribing locally

1.9. Provide advice to GPs, surgery teams and patients to support improvements in

prescribing safety, quality and cost effectiveness

1.10. Respond to medication queries from patients and staff in a professional manner

referring onto appropriate clinician when necessary

1.11. To advise on the sourcing and safe management of medicines as appropriate.

2. Technical and Administrative

2.1. Support the PCN multi-disciplinary team to ensure efficient medicines optimisation

processes are being followed

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

2.3. Provide training and support on the legal, safe and secure handling of medicines,

including the implementation of the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS)

2.4. Promotion of online ordering of medication

2.5. Taking messages and passing on information as appropriate

2.6. Develop relationships with other pharmacy professionals and members of the multidisciplinary team to support integration across health and social care including primary

care, community pharmacy, secondary care and mental health

2.7. Support practice reception teams in streaming general prescription requests, so as to

allow GPs and clinical pharmacists to review the more clinically complex requests

2.8. To help plan, develop and support the introduction of new working processes within

PCN practices to optimise the quality of prescribing

2.9. Support the implementation of national prescribing policies and guidance within GP

practices, care homes and other primary care settings

2.10. Support the PCN to deliver on QIPP agenda, QOF and locally commissioned

enhanced services

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

requirements

2.12. Any other duties commensurate with this position

All Pharmacy Technicians must work within their competencies, and have professional

indemnity for their role.

3

. General

3.1. Develop a culture that promotes equality and values diversity. The postholder must be

aware of and committed to the Equality and Diversity policies of the appointing GP

Federation and comply with all the requirements of these policies and actively promote

Equality and Diversity issues relevant to the post

3.2. Ensure the principles of openness, transparency and candor are observed and upheld

in all working practices

3.3. 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 organisation's safeguarding protection

policies and procedures

3.4. Ensure that any infection prevention and control issues are reported to the line

manager/Infection Prevention and Control

4. Equality and Diversity

The post-holder will support the equality, diversity and rights of patients, carers and colleagues,

to include:

Acting in a way that recognises the importance of people's rights, interpreting them in a
way that is consistent with practice procedures and policies, and current legislation

Respecting the privacy, dignity, needs and beliefs of patients, carers and colleagues Behaving in a manner which is welcoming to and of the individual, is non-judgmental and
respects their circumstances, feelings priorities and rights.

5. Personal/Professional development

The post-holder will participate in any training programme implemented by the practice as part

of this employment, with such training to include:

Participation in an annual individual performance review, including taking responsibility
for maintaining a record of own personal and/or professional development

Taking responsibility for own development, learning and performance and demonstrating
skills and activities to others who are undertaking similar work

6. Quality

The post-holder will strive to maintain quality within the practice, and will:

Alert other team members to issues of quality and risk Assess own performance and take accountability for own actions, either directly or under
supervision

Contribute to the effectiveness of the team by reflecting on own and team activities and
making suggestions on ways to improve and enhance the team's performance

Work effectively with individuals in other agencies to meet patients' needs Effectively manage own time, workload and resources
Job Type: Full-time

Pay: 15.50 per hour

Schedule:

Monday to Friday
Work Location: In person