Canterbury - Lead Pharmacy Technician for Dispensary Services (Operations)
Job overview
Come and join the team who were finalists in the 2023 APTUK Pharmacy Technician Team of the Year. At EKHUFT we pride ourselves on progression and innovation, as one of the first Trusts to embrace accuracy checking for Senior Pharmacy Assistants.
We are looking for someone with exceptional leadership qualities who can motivate staff. This post sits within the Dispensary Operational Team and leads the 3 dispensaries and the dispensary managers. This team are integral in building the future operations pharmacy and work in conjunction with our dispensary services team across our 3 sites to manage and develop our dispensaries.
As a Pharmacy department, we work across all of the Trusts sites to support the supply of medicines and to maintain an efficient workflow throughout the day.
Main duties of the job
To plan, manage, develop, assist in the leadership and participate in the provision of pharmacy operational dispensary services to the East Kent Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the customers served through Service Level Agreements. To work closely with the Chief Pharmacy Technician, Deputy Chief Pharmacy Technician and dispensary managers and their teams.To develop and maintain good communications with all medical staff, nursing staff and other healthcare professionals working across the Trust. To maintain good communications with all patients, their carers and relatives. To liaise with other health professionals and their staff as the need arises.
Working for our organisation
We are one of the largest hospital trusts in England, with five hospitals and community clinics serving a local population of around 800,000 people. Our vision is 'great healthcare from great people'. Everything we do is guided by our values: 'People feel cared for, safe, respected and confident that we are making a difference’.We have a new way of working at East Kent Hospitals, called 'We care'. It's about empowering frontline staff to lead improvements day-to-day. We're looking for compassionate people to be part of our improvement journey for the patients, families and carers we care for every day.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Key Result Areas- To lead and oversee the Dispensary Services across all sites, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, William Harvey and Kent and Canterbury hospital.
- To develop, implement and maintain a comprehensive set of performance indicators for dispensary services. To use these indicators to develop and improve service delivery.
- To implement service changes and ensure the timely and successful delivery of objectives by the whole team.
- To ensure supply of all medicines in an appropriate manner, with due regard to Good Dispensing Practice and agreed policies and procedures to inpatients, outpatients, ward and departments and outside units.
- Dispensary Service Standards and KPIs are designed, described, monitored and met with action plans generated as required
- To understand legislation and professional guidance to a level which allows the postholder to know when it is acceptable and appropriate for themselves or their staff to deviate from standard operating procedures. To be able to take responsibility for contentious decisions.
- To assist in the development of plans for departmental Business Continuity, flu pandemic, internal disasters and major incidents.
- To ensure operational dispensary services are patient focussed and to create a culture of customer care.
- To directly line manage the dispensary managers.
- To be involved in maintenance of IT systems in dispensary services, i.e automated dispensing, dispensary tracking and other databases or IT solutions.
- To Development, Review and implement all Trust wide Dispensary SOPs
- Participation in the local and national reviews of pharmacy outcomes
- To ensure that there is an appropriate and well-functioning management structure within the dispensary.
- To consider opportunities for skill-mixing or changes in configuration to overcome recruitment difficulties or to improve the efficiency of the area.
- To organise the pharmacy service for appropriate sites at weekends and bank holidays ensuring appropriate rostering, training and induction, remuneration, service review and development.
- To support a quality induction programme for all dispensary pharmacy staff which includes regular evaluation of effectiveness.
- To lead on the education and training for all dispensary based pharmacy technicians and pharmacy assistants working within the dispensary service ensuring that all of these staff are competent to provide the roles with the Trust.
- To identify future development needs or changes nationally that will impact dispensary services and ensure the department is able to meet those needs / strategies.
- To oversee on recruitment for all dispensary teams by being responsible for ensuring a robust recruitment process of team members that adheres to Trust policies including review of roles / responsibilities, preparing / agreeing adverts, short listing, chairing interview panels and selecting team members.
- To work with the Education, Training, Learning and Development Team to develop and oversee band 4 to band 5 progression programmes.
- To ensure e-rostering is robust with dispensary service teams and rostering time frames are met.
- Job plans for dispensary service staff are fair and reviewed
- To act as a role model, supervisor and mentor for pharmacy assistants, pharmacy technicians, trainee pharmacists, and pre-registration trainee pharmacy technicians and other members of pharmacy staff. This will include education and practice supervision.
- To take responsibility for own personal CPD by participating in education and training programmes to improve competence and acquire new skills to benefit development of the service.
- To work with the dispensary managers to develop a training plan that reflects and addresses staff needs which are identified by governance processes.
- To ensure that all staff in the operational staff dispensary team are adequately supervised and directed in their acts and duties, which must be carried out in accordance with agreed policies and procedures.
- To assist as and when necessary in the in-service education and training of staff within the pharmacy and in the Trusts as a whole.
- To ensure that all staff have their training needs met within the team and that the departmental Education and Training strategy is applied.
- To ensure that HR policies are followed and that all staff are trained appropriately for the management and supervision of others.
- To be responsible for ensuring site specific adherence to “responsible pharmacist” arrangements on our registered site in order to ensure compliance with General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) Legislation.
- To receive inspections from GPhC inspectors and ensure reports are acted upon and necessary improvements made.
- To ensure the service complies with all mandatory and statutory legislation and to ensure this is evidenced, documented and reported.
- Contribute and lead on investigation of complaints within area of responsibility and provide advice of any appropriate remedial action that may be required.
- To ensure that incidents are reported, recorded, investigated, analysed and appropriate action taken and/or proposed.
- Lead on investigation into medicine related incidents as required.
- To escalate any risks related to the delivery of the dispensary Service to Pharmacy Performance Review Meeting
- To keep the Trust Risk Register updated to meet actions of any owned / delegated risks.
- Participate in preparing business cases for the speciality / Care Group when they involve dispensary services.
- Working closely with the Medicines Value Team to ensure Trust Medicines Value agenda is met.
- Support work to enable the Trust to meet its CQUIN Targets.
- Assist the Chief Pharmacy Technician in managing the Operations Service budget.
- Authorise and verify all KTAKEMs for dispensary, Trustwide stores and Ward Distribution Services. Ensure all investigations are completed and high-risk cost stock figures amended where needed.
- To be responsible for ensuring sales from registered premises comply with GPhC legislation.
- To assist identification of annual contributions towards Cost Improvement Programme or other efficiency or savings programmes. To implement changes to deliver savings.
- To ensure the collection of all appropriate income for the area.
- Provide strong leadership and management for dispensary Services to ensuring that responsibilities and decision making are delegated appropriately, that services are managed effectively and that all staff are aware of their roles and responsibilities and deliver effectively.
- To support processes in other sections by undertaking formal investigations (such as HR) or providing informal advice based on own knowledge and experiences.
- Undertake coaching of staff to improve performance.
- To be responsible for the appropriate management of the whole specialist team (directly or indirectly), including delivery of annual appraisal, management of poor performance, managing sickness and absence, ensuring staff are treated equitably.
- Develop and implement systems to monitor performance of line managers and teams to ensure that all staff / teams are managed effectively, are motivated and perform their roles and responsibilities to a high standard.
- Undertake and manage formal Trust HR policies e.g. disciplinary, sickness, grievance etc.
- To appropriately manage difficult and ambiguous problems.
- Participate in regional and national organisations and groups
- To undertake any other appropriate duties as may be requested by the Director of Pharmacy / Chief Pharmacy Technician
- To maintain a commitment to self- development and undertake further training as identified in the appraisal and performance management.
- To take part in weekend, bank holiday and late duty services. Daily hours are adjusted to provide for an average of 37.5 hours per week.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria- Registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) as a Pharmacy Technician
- Accuracy checking qualification or equivalent
- Practice Supervisor or Educational Supervisor qualification or equivalent
Skills
Essential criteria- Experience of leading change management
- Experience of managing a team of staff
- Equal opportunities trained for recruitment of staff Training in management and HR related policies, e.g. managing absence, appraisal.
- Experience of involving patients and/or customers in service developments
Personal attributes
Essential criteria- Effective negotiating skills
- Effective decision making skills
Other requirements
Essential criteria- Experience of conducting service audits and the use of performance indicators
Staff and patients from across East Kent Hospitals are the feature of the biggest NHS recruitment drive in its 70 year history. https://www.ekhuft.nhs.uk/patients-and-visitors/work-here/
Filmed in William Harvey and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother hospitals, the ‘We are the NHS’ campaign highlights the extraordinary work that staff across EKHUFT do every single day. As one of the largest hospital trusts in England, with five hospitals and community clinics serving a population of over one million people, EKHUFT was perfectly placed to demonstrate the care, cutting-edge treatments, research, innovations and life-saving operations that the campaign needed.
There are lots of great opportunities at East Kent Hospitals, where staff are caring and put patients first, innovation flourishes and you can develop your career. We’re on an exciting journey of transformation. With a new Medical School at the centre of our community, a focus on research, clinical leadership and making our trust a rewarding and friendly place to work, there’s never been a better time to join us.To find out more about east Kent visit our website at. The Trust fully supports the SAS Doctors Charter and is committed to their development through its CPD Framework.
We’ll close this job advert once we’ve received sufficient applications which may be before the closing date so please apply as soon as possible. We only accept online applications. If you have any difficulty with this please contact our Resourcing Team on 01227 866450 who are happy to help.
We have a relocation policy for eligible candidates, parking available at Trust sites but we encourage other options, like car sharing or public transport.
The Trust is committed to supporting flexible working to fulfil our pledge as part of The Trust’s People Strategy to help staff to achieve a healthy work/life balance. Please speak with your Recruiting Manager for further information on how this can be managed alongside department expectations and requirements.
The ability to converse easily and provide advice in accurate spoken English is essential for all customer facing roles.
Most positions require a Disclosure and Barring check and will be exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. Posts working regularly or unsupervised with children or vulnerable adults require an enhanced check.
Applicants for eligible roles requiring Tier 2 sponsorship must meet UK Visas and Immigration eligibility criteria.
We operate a no-smoking policy on all our sites and grounds.
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