Senior Pharmacy Technician - Homecare
Guy’s and St Thomas’ is among the UK’s busiest and most successful NHS foundation trusts. We provide a full range of hospital and community services for people in south London and as well as specialist care for patients from further afield including cancer, renal, orthopaedic, respiratory and cardiovascular services.
Guy’s is home to the largest dental school in Europe and a £160 million Cancer Centre opened in 2016. As part of our commitment to provide care closer to home, in 2017 we also opened a cancer centre and a kidney treatment centre at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup.St Thomas’ has one of the largest critical care units in the UK and one of the busiest emergency departments in London. It is also home to Evelina London Children’s Hospital.
Evelina London cares for local children in Lambeth and Southwark and provides specialist services across south east England including cardiac, renal and critical care services. We lead a number of specialist service networks aiming to ensure children are treated locally where possible, but have access to specialist expertise when they need it.Our community services include health visiting, school nursing and support for families of children with long-term conditions.
Our adult community services teams deliver care at the heart of the local communities we serve, working in partnership with GPs, local authorities and other healthcare and voluntary sector organisations. Working with our partners in Lambeth and Southwark, we are focusing on new ways of working to improve care for local patients.
In February 2021 the Royal Brompton and Harefield joined Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, bringing together world-leading expertise in the care and research of heart and lung disease. Our merger provides a once in a generation opportunity to build a lasting, world-renowned heart and lung centre, providing the highest quality care for patients and conducting world-leading research.
We have a reputation for clinical excellence and high quality teaching and research. We are part of King’s Health Partners, one of eight accredited UK academic health sciences centres. In partnership with King’s College London we have dedicated clinical research facilities including an MHRA accredited Phase I clinical trials unit.
Patients are at the heart of everything we do and we pride ourselves on ensuring the best possible patient experience as well as safe, high quality care. We are proud to have one of the lowest mortality rates in the NHS. Following a comprehensive Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection in 2019 we maintained our overall rating of ‘good’.Our adult community services achieved a rating of ‘outstanding’.
The commitment of our 23,500 staff is key to our success. We are one of the largest local employers and we aim to develop and support all our staff so they are able to deliver high quality, safe and efficient care. The 2019 NHS staff survey results show that we have one of the most engaged and motivated workforces in the NHS.We know this has a positive impact on the care provided to our patients.
We have one of the most ambitious capital investment programmes anywhere in the NHS.
Job overview
To support the Principal Pharmacy Homecare Technician with the running of the Pharmacy Homecare service. Prioritisation and management of duties, understanding needs and expectations of workload. Take an active and methodical approach in problem-solving.Provide appropriate support to Homecare staff when and where needed.
Main duties of the job
Work accurately and timely to complete tasks. Professional communication with patients, pharmacy staff, wider hospital teams and external companies. Work independently to complete tasks but also to cooperate with others in line with own work limitations.At all times work in accordance with Trust values, and procedures.
Working for our organisation
Guy’s and St Thomas’ is among the UK’s busiest and most successful NHS foundation trusts. We provide a full range of hospital and community services for people in south London and as well as specialist care for patients from further afield including cancer, renal, orthopaedic, respiratory and cardiovascular services.
Guy’s is home to the largest dental school in Europe and a £160 million Cancer Centre opened in 2016. As part of our commitment to provide care closer to home, in 2017 we also opened a cancer centre and a kidney treatment centre at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup.St Thomas’ has one of the largest critical care units in the UK and one of the busiest emergency departments in London. It is also home to Evelina London Children’s Hospital.
Guy’s and St Thomas’ pharmacy departments are one of the largest and most renowned pharmacy within the UK.
The pharmacy procurement team are a centralised service who purchase medicines to the value of £130million per annum.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities- Under the instruction of the Pharmacy Homecare Principal Technician, process homecare prescriptions and homecare invoices following standard operating procedures
- Collaborate with appropriate teams to resolve, refer and respond to all homecare queries from patients, staff, or homecare providers.
- To ensure that stock is virtually dispensed and precise costings of homecare medicines are booked through EPIC, and charged to the relevant providers, in line with standard operating procedures
- To liaise with creditor payments to ensure prompt payment of invoices according to the Trust’s Standing Financial Instructions.
- To be responsible for ensuring that all clinical incidents, complaints and concerns for Homecare are reported, investigated, acted upon and learnt from
- Assist with auditing, reporting and data entry,
- Provide support and supervision to pharmacy homecare team, including appropriate cover for the Principal Pharmacy Technician and in their absence.
- Liaise with clinical pharmacists, or clinical nurse specialists to highlight and refer clinical problems, ensure that requests are processed safely and prioritised to match clinical urgency.
- Take an active role in the management of Key Performance Indicators, and the performance management of Homecare companies
- Support specialist clinical pharmacists, when called upon, in providing relevant reports, utilising available IT resources available through Hyperspace and Willow
- Contribute to the development of electronic systems for managing homecare.
- Support the Pharmacy Homecare Principal Technician in ensuring that relevant risk management initiatives are taken to minimise all areas of risk within Homecare and in suggesting and implementing any improvements, where necessary.
- Provide clear, effective and professional communication, at all times, in written and verbal communication with patients, patient’s representatives, homecare provider personnel, all levels of internal staff including the rest of the pharmacy homecare team.
Person specification
Professional/ Statutory Registration
Essential criteria- GPhC registration
- Working towards gaining GPHc registration
Education and Qualifications
Essential criteria- Qualified pharmacy technician
- GCSE, or equivalent, Maths and English grades C or above
- A-levels, or equivalent, in any subject
- Accredited checking technician (ACT)
Previous experience
Essential criteria- Experience as a Pharmacy technician
- Experience of working with confidential documentation and information
- Experience in ensuring data quality in information systems
- Confident and proficient with IT, using MS Outlook, Excel, Word
- Experience of working in multi-disciplinary teams
- Experience with pharmacy management software
- Previous evaluated experience of supervising staff and workload on a day-to-day basis
- Experience with EPIC pharmacy management software
- Pharmacy homecare, procurement or purchasing experience
- Stock level management and maintenance experience
Knowledge / Skills / Abilities
Essential criteria- Work independently
- Attention to detail
- Able to demonstrate a good understanding of the context of hospital pharmacy and the NHS.
- Demonstrated accurate numeracy skills
- Willing to be flexible and to adapt to changing and challenging circumstances
- Excellent communication skills with the ability to relate to a diverse group of professional staff and patients
- Capacity to manage time, meeting specific operational targets and objectives
- Ability to collaborate, co-ordinate and organise individuals
- Good numerical skills and mental arithmetic
- Use of initiative
- Able to deal with challenging, abusive or upset individuals, calmly, politely and effectively
- Develop and maintain professional working relationships, with confidence to influence
- Ability to carry out data-collection, data-entry, analysis and reporting
Guy’s and St Thomas’ celebrates, respects and values the diversity of its staff and patients. We review our policies, procedures and practices to ensure that all employees, patients and carers are treated equitable according to their needs. We are actively committed to ensuring that no one who applies for a job, works or study’s at the Trust, or accesses our services is discriminated against on the grounds of race, ethnicity, nationality, disability, religion or belief, age, gender identity , gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity/paternity, or marital/civil partnership.
Applications are welcomed from applicants with a disability. We can make reasonable adjustments and offer support and advice in a variety of ways throughout the application process. Equality of opportunity is our policy.
As an organisation we are committed to developing our services in ways that best suit the needs of our patients. This means that some staff groups will increasingly be asked to work a more flexible shift pattern so that we can offer services in the evenings or at weekends.
Flexible working
We are committed to supporting all employees to achieve a healthy work life balance and to work in a way that is best for them and our patients. We will consider all requests to work flexibly, taking in to account the individual’s personal circumstances as well the needs of the service.We encourage all prospective applicants to discuss their individual circumstances with the recruiting manager as part of the on-boarding process.
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