Senior Pharmacy Technician - Dispensary Services - University of Liverpool

Job overview

Are you an experienced final accuracy checking pharmacy technician who has significant experience of working in a hospital pharmacy?

LUFHT may have the perfect opportunity for you.

We are looking for a Senior Pharmacy Technician based in the dispensary who can act as a great role model, provide excellent training and demonstrate our trust values.

You must be able to show great leadership qualities, a broad experience of working in a pharmacy and knowledge and understanding of working in a hospital.

We want to recruit a Senior Pharmacy Technician who is enthusiastic, motivated who will work to our professional standards to provide an efficient and patient focused service.

You may be required to rotate across all sites of LUHFT.

Main duties of the job

In the role as a Senior Pharmacy Technician, you must have excellent communication skills, attention to detail and be flexible as you will you will work within our dispensaries, alongside, pharmacy assistants, pharmacy technicians and pharmacists.

You will be required to supervise work of pharmacy assistants, technician and students ensuring work is prioritised appropriately and play a key role in training and development of staff to maintain a quality and standards of work.

You will be required to participate in evening, weekend, and Bank Holiday working in keeping with the Pharmacy Directorate arrangements and the needs of the Trust.

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.

1. Plan and co-ordinate and supervise less experienced staff working in the dispensary service to ensure that medicines are dispensed in an accurate and timely manner including unlicensed medicines and cytotoxics.
2. Accuracy check prescriptions.
3. Ensure the training and development needs of all staff working in the dispensary are fulfilled, for example, student technicians, support workers, rotational pharmacists, pre-registration pharmacists and technicians, in line with pre-defined training programmes.
4. Ensure that adequate stocks of medicines are maintained and be responsible for the completion of the daily stock reconciliation process solving any problems identified, including correction and financial amendment.
5. Undertakes basic work-based assessments e.g. pregnancy risk assessments.
6. Support the deputy team lead – dispensary services to organise, co-ordinate and amend the daily rotas for the dispensary services to ensure all tasks are covered.
7. Co-ordinate the day-to-day supervision of the dispensary whilst acting as a role model, demonstrating and promoting the standards of care expected and creating energy and enthusiasm for service improvement.
8. Undertake line management responsibility for staff absence and support the deputy team lead – dispensary services to manage affected rotas.
9. Undertake line management responsibility, within designated area, for staff appraisal, personal development, mandatory training compliance and any other related management tasks.
10. Participate in the development, review and implementation of SOPs in consultation with the Team Leader and Deputy Team Leader - Dispensary Services.
11. Make judgements and decisions in the absence of a more senior member of staff within the limits compatible with technician training.
12. Support quality improvement and implementation of new ways of working.
13. Ensure correct handling of the various prescriptions into the pharmacy dispensary and make judgements on how to prioritise workload when urgent requests are made, liaising with appropriate personnel when necessary, using tact and diplomacy.
14. Give advice and answer straight forward medication queries from patients/customers and other healthcare professionals, referring matters requiring further advice to the Team Leader and deputy team leader - Dispensary Services or relevant Pharmacists.
15. Analyse and give daily feedback to dispensary staff on performance against key performance indicators using data from the prescription tracker system and Wellsky.
16. Ensure all necessary paperwork and information is completed and stored appropriately in accordance with departmental SOPs.
17. Implement and propose changes required to the dispensary service as directed by the line manager.
18. Ensure the dispensary is kept clean and tidy and ensuring compliance with Health and Safety at work regulations, escalating when necessary.
19. Liaise and provide support for the Senior Technical Service Leads and Team Leaders as required
20. Ensure that an environment is created where staff feel valued and are provided with genuine opportunities for their development.
21. Supervise and participate in the training of all staff working in the pharmacy dispensary including assessing competence and signing off training packs.
22. Act as a mentor for technical staff undertaking accuracy checking qualification.
23. Be responsible for own CPD.
24. Undertakes research activities such as audit.
25. Promote a culture in which multi-disciplinary teams strive for continuous quality improvement by recording and learning from mistakes whether they be human error or systems failure.
26. Ensure the issuing/dispensing and traceability of medicines issued to patients is performed correctly and recorded correctly on the pharmacy computer system.
27. Ensure the legal and effective distribution of goods to wards and departments within LUHFT and also to external customers who receive a service via service level agreements.
28. Liaise with procurement staff to ensure that timely ordering of pharmaceuticals is met and owing/to follow orders are kept track of and processed.
29. Ensure the daily stock take is performed done and stock is corrected on Wellsky as per SOP, submit this in a timely manner each weekday to the Team Leader – Dispensary Services.
30. Ensure Controlled Drug legislation is adhered to, CD stock levels are correct, and that SOPs are followed when investigating discrepancies, escalating to senior dispensary staff when required.
31. Organise expiry date checking across the dispensaries ensuring short, dated stock is used up in advance where possible.
32. Participate in routine pharmacy technician duties, when appropriate, including dispensing and accuracy checking.
33. Check for prescribing errors within the limits compatible with technician training and refer back to the relevant pharmacist with any queries.
34. Participate in the investigation of complaints/litigation/adverse incidents and ensure all documentation is completed.
35. Provide advice on common medications such as dose and how to use.
36. Check the dispensing, issuing, stock control, assembly and procurement of pharmaceuticals in accordance with relevant legislation and departmental procedures, including regular dispensing of controlled drugs and cytotoxics.
37. Ensure that all work is undertaken in a timely and accurate way.
38. Perform accurate dose volume checking on non–standard volumes.
39. Be a robot super user and trouble shoot complex problems and maintain efficient systems.
40. Receive prescriptions from customers and hospital staff in accordance with dispensary procedures (including collecting prescription charges) and prioritise prescriptions according to urgency.
41. Participate in staff rotations within the pharmacy departments across LUHFT as required.
42. Participate in bank holiday, late night and weekend rotas as considered appropriate by the Chief Pharmacist or other senior managers.
43. Observe regulations in respect of the Health and Safety at Work Act and Data Protection Act.
44. Undertake any other duties relevant to this grade as directed by the line manager, Chief Pharmacist, or other senior managers. Education and training development Ensure the training and development needs of all staff working in the dispensary are fulfilled

Person specification

Qualifications

• NVQ Level 3 in Pharmacy Services/BTEC in Pharmaceutical Sciences or equivalent
• Registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council of Great Britain
• Accuracy Checking Certificate

Experience

• Demonstrable expertise as a qualified Pharmacy Technician
• Significant experience of working in a hospital pharmacy
• Experience of education and training of pharmacy staff
• Participated in service audit
• Experience of pharmacy labelling and stock control systems

• Working effectively within a multi-disciplinary team
• Experience of supervising staff
• Experience of using Wellsky stock control system
• Working with automated dispensing systems

Knowledge

• Ability to work alone and be a good team player
• Ability to motivate self and others
• Understanding of maintaining a live, stock control system
• Knowledge of medicines management and relevant legislation and policies

Skills

• Leadership skills
• Organisation and prioritisation skills
• Excellent oral communication skills
• Word processing, spreadsheets, email, accurate data entry skills

Other

• Enthusiasm for the position
• Lead by example – positive and optimistic
• Professional and fair approach to staff management
• Self-motivated, reliable, proactive, and conscientious
• Flexible in approach to work – ability to empathise with patients and other healthcare professionals
• Accurate and methodical with good attention to detail
• Ability to concentrate for long periods of time and to work accurately under pressure
• Ability to multitask and change from one job to another frequently, working alone and as a team member
• Participation in evening, weekend and bank holiday working
• Ability to carry out moderate to intensive physical effort throughout the working day and carry out concurrent activities including climbing ladders, stretching, bending and standing for long periods of time

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.

Note: Under current Home Office Immigration Rules we are currently unable to offer right to work visa sponsorship for Band 2 and 3 roles with a salary of less than £25,000 pa as they do not meet the UK Visas & Immigration criteria.

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.