About us
Topsham Surgery is a friendly and forward-thinking practice.
We are made up of 2 sites, one in Topsham and a branch site at Countess Wear.
The 2 sites are spacious with a variety of consulting and administration rooms with a pharmacy based at the Glasshouse site.
We care for over 11,700 patients across a large practice boundary from Middlemoor and St Leonards to Lympstone in the South and Aylesbeare in the East.
Job summary
We are looking to recruit 32 hours of Pharmacy Technician to join our growing practice Pharmacy team which consists of:

• 2 Clinical Pharmacists
• 2 Pharmacy Technicians
• 1 Chronic Disease / Diabetes Specialist Pharmacist

This could be 2x 16 hour posts, or 1x 32 hour post. Flexible for the right candidate(s).
Pharmacy Technicians play an essential role, complimenting clinical pharmacists, community pharmacists and other members of the practice multi-disciplinary team.
While Pharmacy Technicians do not prescribe nor make clinical decisions, they do work under supervision to ensure the effective and efficient use of medicines. In the practice, their core responsibilities cover clinical, technical, and administrative roles.
The purpose of the role is to maximise safe, cost-effective, prescribing to improve the quality of patient care. The post-holder will help patients get the best from their medicines, use existing protocols to maximise cost-effective preparations, improve repeat prescribing processes (including use of electronic repeat dispensing and online ordering), minimising clinical risk and reducing avoidable wasted medicines.
As well, the post-holder will develop and encourage a positive culture of medicines optimisation principles to assist the practice in achieving local and national medicines-related objectives.
The successful applicant must either have experience working in Primary Care or Medicines Optimisation (or both).
Main tasks

• Supporting medication reviews and medicines reconciliation for patients and synchronising medicines for patient transfers between care settings linking with local community pharmacists.
• Review clinical correspondence to carryout medicine’s reconciliation following hospital discharge or outpatient appointment review.
• Perform medicines improvement work to maximise safe, cost-effective best practice in prescribing under the supervision of the GPs and Pharmacists.
• Provide leadership for medicines optimisation systems across PCNs, supporting practices with a range of services to get the best value from medicines by encouraging and implementing electronic prescriptions, safe repeat prescribing systems and timely monitoring and management of high-risk medicines.
• Conduct medicine optimisation tasks including effective medicine administration (e.g., checking inhaler technique), support medication reviews and medicines reconciliation. When required, utilise consultation skills to work in partnership with patients to ensure they use their medicines effectively
• Review requests for medicines that are not on repeat prescription and issue within the protocol as agreed by the practice.
• Assist with medication safety monitoring i.e., high risk drugs, DMARDS, MHRA alerts etc.
• Liaise with clinical and administrative staff to resolve medicine-related queries.
• Monitor practice prescribing and adherence to practice, local and national prescribing policies.
• Improve service and quality through carrying out and partaking in audits.
• Support the practice to achieve and deliver on QOF and Medicines Optimisation and other prescribing incentive schemes.
• Support the implementation of national prescribing policies and guidance within GP practices, care homes and other primary care settings. This will be achieved through undertaking clinical audits (e.g., use of antibiotics), supporting quality improvement measures and contributing to the Quality and Outcomes Framework and enhanced services.
• Build relationships with the practice team, community pharmacy and local care homes.
• Develop relationships with other Pharmacy Technicians, Pharmacists and members of the multi-disciplinary team to support the integration of the pharmacy team across health and social care including primary care, community pharmacy, secondary care and mental health.
• Undertake any tasks consistent with the level of the post and the scope of the role, ensuring that work is delivered in a timely and effective manner.
• Duties may vary from time to time without changing the general character of the post or the level of responsibility.
• There may be, on occasion, a requirement to carry out other tasks. This will be dependent upon factors such as workload and staffing levels.

Personal specification
Essential

• Registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council as a Pharmacy Technician
• BTEC/NVQ Level 3 in Pharmacy Services/Science
• Experience working as a qualified, registered pharmacy technician.
• Effective time management and prioritisation skills
• Demonstrate accountability, emotion resilience and work well in a fast-paced environment
• Flexibility to work across both practice sites

Desirable

• Experience of working within Primary Care (General Practice)
• Experience of working in Medicines Optimisation/Management
• Working knowledge of the Systm One clinical system

Job Types: Full-time, Part-time
Pay: £15.33-£18.66 per hour
Expected hours: 16 – 32 per week
Benefits:

• Company events
• Company pension
• Discounted or free food
• Employee discount
• Flexitime
• Free flu jabs
• Free parking
• On-site parking
• Sick pay
• Store discount
• Transport links

Schedule:

• Monday to Friday
• No weekends

Ability to commute/relocate:

• Topsham: reliably commute or plan to relocate before starting work (required)

Experience:

• General Practice: 1 year (preferred)
• Medicines Management: 1 year (preferred)

Licence/Certification:

• GPh C (required)

Work authorisation:

• United Kingdom (required)

Work Location: In person
Application deadline: 30/06/2024
Expected start date: 02/12/2024