About this role
Job summary
We have an opportunity to appoint a Pharmacy Technician to join West Somerset Primary Care Network, working alongside our established team of Clinical Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians.
The role supports the four surgeries across the PCN: Minehead Medical Centre, Dunster & Porlock Surgeries, West Somerset Healthcare and Exmoor Medical Centre. This is a varied primary-care role, supporting safe and effective medicines management across practices and helping patients get the best from their medicines.
Applicants must be registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council as a Pharmacy Technician. There will be a requirement to participate in the national CPPE Pharmacy Technician in General Practice training pathway, unless this has already been completed.
Successful candidates will need to be organised, accurate, adaptable and confident working across different practice teams while remaining part of the wider PCN pharmacy team.
We welcome applications for both full-time (37.5 hours per week) and part-time (30 hours per week) employment. Job share opportunities will also be considered.
Rate of pay is £14.68 - £16.98 per hour, based on previous experience and CPPE completion.
Please open the job description and person specification for a comprehensive overview of the role.
For more information, please contact Piotr Zak, Lead Pharmacist: [email protected]
Main duties of the job
The post will primarily involve clinical-support and medicines-management work. Key areas will include medicines reconciliation following hospital discharge and clinic letters, prescription and medicines-related queries, medication-monitoring support, annual-review preparation, care-home medicines optimisation, audits, patient-safety workstreams and proactive medicines-management projects.
You will support GPs, pharmacists, practice teams, patients, carers, community pharmacies and other healthcare professionals to improve continuity of care and reduce medicines-related risk. There will be opportunities for appropriate patient contact as part of medicines-related queries, information gathering, monitoring follow-up, care-home work and agreed PCN workstreams.
The balance of work may vary between practices depending on service need. Some workstreams are administrative and process-driven, while others involve medicines optimisation, patient contact and wider clinical-team support.
You will also be well supported by the SHS pharmacy team, including pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, as well as the wider multi-disciplinary team.
We have a strong focus on medicines safety, population health, proactive care and reducing health inequalities. We are also increasing our use of data and digital tools to identify patients who may benefit from monitoring, review or targeted intervention.
About us
Symphony Healthcare Services (Symphony) was established in 2016 as part of the award-winning Symphony Programme Vanguard, developing new models of care. We now support 16 practices across Somerset providing care for over 150,000 patients.
Symphony has developed a model where each practice is encouraged to operate autonomously, but as a subsidiary of NHS Somerset Foundation Trust (SFT), and with the backing and economies of scale from a central support team (particularly for HR, finance, corporate and strategic management matters).
Providing NHS services is at the heart of what we do. Our vision is to ensure that primary care is sustainable for patients and practices in Somerset, and we aim to be a national exemplar for primary care provision.
We work closely with our practice teams to support, develop and transform patient care and working practices with innovation and technology at our core.
Symphony welcomes applications from people of all backgrounds and underrepresented groups. When undertaking recruitment and selection for our services, Symphony we are committed to equality of opportunity for all.
Symphony offers a NHS or NEST Pension, a fantastic range of employee benefits and salary sacrifice schemes (see attached poster), along with flexible working from day of employment and an agile approach to home / office-based working where appropriate to the role.
We look forward to hearing from you and receiving your application.
Job description Job responsibilities
As a Symphony Pharmacy Technician, you will support and assist activities in all of the surgeries within the West Somerset Primary Care Network to help patients to get the best from their medicines by supporting systems to improve the continuity of care, handling of prescription queries from patients and health care professionals and supporting medication management in care homes.
You will also participate in medication audits, quality improvement projects and monitoring of high-risk drugs to ensure ongoing patient safety and high quality prescribing.
This post is funded by NHS England and will include a requirement to participate in the national CPPE training scheme for pharmacy technicians in general practice.
Please read the attached job description and person specification for before applying.
Person Specification
Qualifications Essential
BTech. City and Guilds or Apothecary Hall, or NVQ level 3 with BTech in Pharmaceutical Sciences or equivalent Registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council
Desirable
Accredited Medicines Management Technician
Experience Essential
Practical experience of working as pharmacy technician in primary care, community or secondary care setting. Experience of providing pharmaceutical and prescribing advice. Practical experience of computerised systems. Experience of prescriptions processes and systems.
Desirable
Experience of systems to support patients in Primary Care setting . Good clinical pharmacy knowledge. Experience of project implementation.
Personal qualities Essential
Attention to detail. Good communication skills, written and oral. IT and Keyboard skills. Ability to follow procedures and work to deadlines. Ability to handle situations of potential conflict. Problem solving skills. Ability to work on own initiative. Ability to work as part of a team. Excellent interpersonal skills. Influencing and negotiating skills. Ability to plan and organise.
Special Requirements Desirable
Knowledge of the General Practice environment. Knowledge of prescribing systems relating to GP practice, community.
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 Symphony Healthcare Services Limited
Address 2 Irnham Road
Minehead
TA24 5DL
United Kingdom
Employer's website https://www.symphonyhealthcareservices.com/ (Opens in a new tab)