About this role
Job summary
The post holder will play a key role in ensuring the safe, effective, and efficient use of medicines across both practice populations. As an integral member of the multidisciplinary team, they will contribute to medicines optimisation by undertaking a range of technical, clinical, and patient facing activities designed to improve prescribing quality and support enhanced patient outcomes.
Main duties of the job
The main duties of the role involves providing patient centred medicines support, including shared decision conversations, counselling on new or changed medicines, and ensuring safe and effective use of treatments. You will process prescriptions, support medication reviews and medicines reconciliation across care settings, and contribute to medicines optimisation, antimicrobial stewardship, and the implementation of national prescribing guidance. Working as part of the multidisciplinary team, you will help streamline prescription workflows, promote eRD, reduce medicines waste, and maintain accurate clinical records.
The role also includes supporting medicines safety through monitoring, post discharge reconciliation, maintaining shared care protocols, and ensuring accurate allergy and alert documentation. You will contribute to clinical governance by responding to MHRA alerts, supporting audits, and assisting with incident reporting, while maintaining your own professional development and supporting the learning of others.
About us
Spencer Street Surgery is a well-established GP practice located in the heart of Carlisle, providing a comprehensive range of NHS primary care services to the local community. With a patient population of approximately 14,000, the practice operates across two sites within the city.
Our mission is to deliver high-quality, safe and accessible healthcare, ensuring that every patient receives responsive, compassionate and courteous care.
Our multidisciplinary clinical team comprises GPs, Paramedic Practitioners, Practice Nurses and Healthcare Assistants, supported by a dedicated and experienced team of management and administrative staff.
We are also proud to be part of the Carlisle and Rural Primary Care Network (PCN). This partnership enables us to offer patients access to a broader range of specialist skills and services, including a Frailty Team, Social Prescribers and Physiotherapists, alongside other services designed to support the health and wellbeing of our local community.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Primary Duties and Responsibilities
Undertake patient facing and patient supporting roles to ensure effective medicines use, through shared decision-making conversations with patients.
Process prescriptions in line with agreed clinical protocols and within your competency.
Where required, utilise consultation skills to work in partnership with patients to ensure they use their medicines effectively.
When required, utilise consultation skills to work in partnership with patients to ensure they use their medicines effectively (e.g. checking inhaler technique)
Support medication reviews and medicines reconciliation for new care home patients and synchronising medicines for patient transfers between care settings and linking with local community pharmacists.
Provide specialist expertise, where competent, to address both the public health and social care needs of patients, including lifestyle advice, service information, and help in tackling local health inequalities.
Take a central role in the clinical aspects of shared care protocols and liaising with specialist pharmacists for more complex patients.
Support initiatives for antimicrobial stewardship to reduce inappropriate antibiotic prescribing.
Assist in the delivery of medicines optimisation and management incentive schemes and patient safety audits.
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.
Work with the multi-disciplinary team to ensure efficient medicines optimisation, including implementing efficient ordering and return processes, and reducing wastage.
Support team in sorting and streaming general prescription requests, so as to allow GPs and clinical pharmacists to review the more clinically complex requests.
Promote Electronic Repeat Dispensing (eRD) and online ordering as appropriate to patient and practice needs.
Support efficient ordering to reduce medicines waste.
Develop relationships with other pharmacy technicians, pharmacists and members of the multi-disciplinary team to support integration of the pharmacy team across health and social care including primary care, community pharmacy, secondary care, and mental health.
Support service development, contributing to audits and practice-wide initiatives.
Maintain accurate patient records that clearly and comprehensively reflect the content of each consultation, ensuring all information is documented in line with professional, legal, and organisational standards.
Provide advice within professional remit to GPs and practice staff relating to changes to prescribing guidance to support the improvement of prescribing safety, quality, and cost effectiveness.
Assist patients and GP staff with responses to medication queries.
Counsel patients on how to use newly started medications, and provide advice regarding any medication changes, to optimise safety and improve compliance.
Support implementation of local and national guidelines and formulary recommendations.
Support and encourage reduction in prescribing of medicines available to purchase over the counter, medicines of low value, and low priority treatments.
Medicines Safety
Identify patients that are overdue required monitoring and refer to the appropriate clinicians.
Reconcile medicines following discharge from hospitals, intermediate care and into care homes, including identifying and appropriately rectifying unexplained changes and working with patients and community pharmacists to ensure patients receive the medicines they need post discharge.
Ensure shared care protocols are in place where relevant and ensure the continuation of safe practice within primary care is maintained.
Work with the pharmacy service team to develop and implement systems to ensure the effective and continuous supply of medication to high-risk patients.
Understand and accurately record relevant patient alerts (e.g. visually impaired, hard of hearing).
Ensure patient allergy information is accurate and correctly documented, and that the information is shared with the wider multidisciplinary team.
Clinical Governance
Respond to Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA) alerts, set up searches to identify affected patients on the practice clinical systems and action them according to practice protocol.
Monitor practice prescribing against the local formulary and report back results to the clinical pharmacist team and action as required.
Support in the reporting of medicines related incidents, and when required, contribute to investigations and root cause analysis.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Pharmacy Technician registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)
- BTEC/NVQ level 3 or equivalent in pharmaceutical science
- Evidence of continued professional development
Skills
Essential
- Strong communication and consultation skills
- Well-developed word processing/data collection/IT skills
- Excellent interpersonal, verbal and written communication skills
- Effective organisational and time management skills
- Accuracy and attention to detail
- Ability to work independently and as part of a multidisciplinary team
- Ability to interpret clinical information to support clinical decision making
- Ability to prioritise and manage own workload
- Flexible approach to work, adapting to changing priorities
- Ability to use own initiative
Desirable
- Experience of use of a medical software package such as EMIS
Knowledge
Essential
- Understanding of primary care workflows
- Understanding of medicines legislations, including controlled drugs, safeguarding and national prescribing guidance
- Understanding of medicines management, pharmaceutical care principles, and repeat prescribing processes
Experience
Essential
- Minimum of 2 years post registration experience
- Experience in medicines optimisation
- Experience working in a primary care, hospital or community setting
- Experience dealing with patients/public
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
Employer details
Employer name
Spencer Street Surgery
Address
10-12 Spencer Street
Carlisle
Cumbria
CA1 1BP
United Kingdom
Employer's website
https://www.spencerstreetsurgery.co.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)