Senior Pharmacy Assistant - Clinical Trials

Job overview

Come and join our friendly pharmacy clinical trials team.

We provide pharmacy support for the expanding Research work of the trust cross site. We have a large portfolio of drug studies requiring the input of the pharmacy department, across all clinical specialities.

We support the NIHR Royal Liverpool Clinical Research Facility in the conduct of first in human studies.

We work with external trial sponsors such as pharmaceutical companies, universities and CTUs to ensure the correct and safe management of clinical trial medication.

You will assist in the maintenance of trial drugs, dispensing, labelling, recording drug accountability and temperature monitoring of any areas storing clinical trial medication at both the Aintree and Royal Liverpool Hospital sites.

You will also meet with external trial representatives during their monitoring visits to discuss the conduct of the trials at site.

You will be trained in the main dispensary and be included on the late and weekend rotas.

Full training in our in-house procedures and policies will be given.

In order to be considered for the band 3 post you must hold NVQ2 in pharmacy services (dispensing).

Applicants who do not hold the required NVQ may be considered for an annex 21 contract and enrolment on the NVQ2 apprenticeship course. To be considered for this candidates must be able to evidence residency in the UK for a minimum period of 3 years and previously have not undertaken any other pharmacy qualifications.

Main duties of the job

In this role, you will assist in the pharmacy to support the clinical trials activity of the Trust for studies involving medicines and working in accordance with current legislation, GCP and Trust SOPs.

You will work as part of the Clinical Trials & Pharmacy team in providing an efficient, effective and safe clinical trials service in accordance with departmental and Trust standards and procedures.

You will assist in the provision and development of the clinical trials service to LUHFT and dispense Clinical Trial prescriptions accurately in accordance with departmental and Trust standards in accordance with Good Clinical Practice and Clinical Trial regulations

Please see attached job description.

Working for our organisation

Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust comprises Aintree University Hospital, Broadgreen Hospital & Royal Liverpool University Hospital.

We are part of NHS University Hospitals of Liverpool Group, formed on 1 Nov 2024 from the coming together of LUHFT and Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust. The Group was born from a shared aim to improve the care we provide our patients.

UHLG is one of the largest employers in the region, with over 16,800 colleagues dedicated to caring for our communities - from birth and beyond.

For the 630,000 people across Merseyside, we are their local NHS. We provide general and emergency hospital care, alongside highly specialised regional services for more than two million people in the North West.

Liverpool Women’s Hospital specialises in the health of women and babies, delivering over 7,200 babies in the UK’s largest single site maternity hospital each year. The Royal Liverpool University Hospital is the largest hospital in the country to provide inpatients with 100% single bedrooms and focuses on complex planned care and specialist services.

For roles at Liverpool Women’s, visit their careers page.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

You will work as part of the Clinical Trials & Pharmacy team in providing an efficient, effective and safe clinical trials service in accordance with departmental and Trust standards and procedures.

• Dispensing of clinical trials prescriptions, including all required accountability and completion of paperwork
• Receipt of deliveries of clinical trial materials
• management of storage of investigational medicinal products
• Attendance of monitoring visits and following up of actions
• management of generic trials email in box

Please see attached Job Description for full details of role.

Person specification

Qualifications

• Relevant dispensing qualification NVQ 2 or equivalent
• GCSE Grade A-C in Mathematics and English or equivalent (UK ENIC required)

Experience

• Demonstrable experience retail/hospital pharmaceutical work

Knowledge

• Ability to use different IT applications
• Stock Control systems
• Computerised dispensing system
• VDU use

Skills

• Methodical approach
• Team worker
• Flexible
• Honesty/Integrity
• Good communicator
• Professional attitude
• Commitment to CPD

Please ensure you check the email account (including junk/spam boxes) from which you apply regularly as we will use this to contact you regarding your application.

Posts advertised to ‘internal staff’ are open to employees of hospitals within University Hospitals of Liverpool Group and you should confirm your employment within your application form.

Only those applicants who demonstrate clearly how they meet our person specification will be shortlisted for interview.

We reserve the right to close any vacancies from further applications when we have received a minimum number of applications from which to make a shortlist. Please ensure you apply without delay if you wish to be considered for this role.

Candidates applying for the role of Healthcare Assistant on the staff bank should note that due to the nature of the role, workers must be aged 18 or above when commencing in post. Applicants are therefore welcome from those aged over 18 or within 3 months’ of their 18^th birthday.

Not all roles are suitable for every flexible working opportunity all of the time. Flexible working options may include reduced hours, compressed hours, fixed shifts, time back in lieu and home working.

The Trust is committed to promoting equality and diversity; we value the contribution of individual talent, skills, knowledge and experience and aim for a workforce demography representative of the local community. We encourage applicants from the following groups that are currently under-represented in our workforce black, Asian and minority ethnic, lesbian, gay, bisexual and Transgender (LGBTQ+), disabled, male and age 16-24.

Bank posts require upfront payment. DBS applications submitted from 2nd December will be subject to the new DBS fee of £26.50 (standard) and £54.50 (Enhanced).

From April 2017, Skilled visa applicants and their adult dependant(s) will be required to provide a criminal record certificate from each country they have lived in consecutively for 12 months or more in the past ten years.

Applicants requiring sponsorship may wish to determine the likelihood of obtaining sponsorship for this position by assessing themselves against the criteria on the gov.uk website - https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa.

This organisation has a zero-tolerance approach to the abuse of children, young people and vulnerable adults. All staff must ensure they adhere to the organisations safeguarding children and adults’ policy and comply with the Local Safeguarding Children and Adult Board procedures.

Staff should be mindful of their responsibility to safeguard children and adults in any activity performed on behalf of the organisation in line with the requirements of statutory guidance and legislation.

All employees (and volunteers)are expected maintain their safeguarding knowledge and skills by completing mandatory safeguarding training which includes understanding and recognising the signs of abuse and neglect and taking appropriate action.

As an organisation, we have adopted the Merseyside Domestic abuse workplace scheme which supports our staff who are experiencing Domestic Abuse /any forms of sexual violence.

If you have any personal requirements that will enable you to participate in our recruitment process please contact a member of the Recruitment Services by phone on 0151 706 4666 at the earliest opportunity to ensure that measures can be put in place to enable your application for this post.

Please note: new entrants to the NHS will commence on the first pay point of the relevant band.