Job summary
- Main area
- Environmental Monitoring Technician
- Grade
- Band 4
- Contract
- Permanent: Newly created role
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
- Job ref
- 196-LIS9789
- Employer
- Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Guy's Hospital
- Town
- London
- Salary
- £33,094 - £36,195 p.a. inc. HCA
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 18/08/2025 23:59
Employer heading
Environmental Monitoring Technician
Band 4
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
A new and exciting opportunity has arisen for an Environmental Monitoring Technician to work cross-site at the Guy's and St. Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust Technical Services Units.
Guy's and St Thomas' Pharmacy Technical Services encompasses a large number of satellite production and manufacturing units, including Aseptics, Sterile, Non-sterile, Oncology, CIVAS and Radiopharmacy. We have a vacancy for an Environmental Monitoring Technician who will be responsible for assisting the QA Officer for Microbiology in the day-to-day operational management and supervision of environmental monitoring services, including staff, materials and documentation.
Candidates will need a good eye for detail, an ability to follow standard operating procedures accurately and be able to plan and prioritise their own workload and the workload of others. An understanding of the critical importance of environmental monitoring and the possible impact on products is also required. The successful candidate will be required to liaise with both the microbiological monitoring team and the wider technical services team.
You will have the satisfaction in being involved in a service that makes a real difference to patient care in a diverse and forward thinking department.
Main duties of the job
To support the pharmaceutical environmental monitoring service in accordance with GMP, recognised standards and current departmental procedures to ensure a safe, efficient and timely service.
Working for our organisation
Guys and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust has a large number of pharmaceutical manufacturing units across the Trust comprising approximately 100 staff. The microbiology team is a small team comprising around 8 staff members.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Environmental monitoring (EM)
- To liaise with the departmental leads and EM assistants and undertake all aspects of EM to ensure the compliant, efficient and timely delivery of EM services.
- To ensure EM documentation is up to date and completed correctly.
- To ensure that all records and logs are correctly filled daily.
- To undertake first line trouble shooting for all elements of the EM service and document resolution. To report unresolved issues the Pharmaceutical Microbiologist.
- To train new staff in all aspects of the service under the direction of the Pharmaceutical Microbiologist.
- To liaise with production units for their requirements for media. To ensure sufficient quantities of media are available to maintain monitoring schedules.
- To monitor usage of EM consumables and report any out of trend usage.
- To oversee the recording of paper and electronic EM data and ensure this is completed in a timely manner in compliance with all departmental procedures. To report any concerns with data integrity to the Pharmaceutical Microbiologist
- To review completed EM worksheets in a timely manner in compliance with all departmental procedures.
- Communicate any Out of Specification results to Production units & provide any relevant information i.e. micro IDs, worksheets, etc.
- Use of QMS & existing databases to raise quality excursions/ obtain relevant data.
- To ensure equipment used for EM is within the calibration date.
- Prepare samples & dispatch documentation for testing with external laboratories.
- Liaise with contract testing labs and other external suppliers as required.
Planning
- To generate the weekly EM plan and prioritise activities and to report any non-compliances with the plan or resource shortages to the Pharmaceutical Microbiologist.
Stock management and dispensing
- Complete catalogue and non-catalogue orders on Oracle.
- Ensure that deliveries are checked and received into the department in a timely manner.
- Manage EM stock, ensuring quarantining of items as required, stock rotation and general stock management including selection/documentation of Growth Promotion Testing.
Supervision and training
- To assist in the supervision and training of EM assistants and ensure that they are aware of what is expected of them in their job roles
- Identify and escalate SOP noncompliance through observation.
General
- To attend courses and undertake training to develop expertise in EM skills and any other skills, where training needs are identified.
- To perform any other duties required in order to maintain the safe, efficient and effective provision of pharmaceutical services at the request of the Trust Chief Pharmacist and Head of Quality.
Person specification
Skills
Essential criteria
- Demonstrated understanding of the principles of GMP and QA in a manufacturing environment.
- Demonstrated ability to undertake routine physical and environmental monitoring.
- Demonstrated ability to work as part of a team.
- Demonstrated ability to solve routine problems using own initiative.
- Basic IT skills including e-mails, word processing and Excel.
- Demonstrated ability to work under pressure accurately.
Desirable criteria
- Experience of training junior staff in set procedures.
Knowledge/Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Bachelor’s degree in Life Sciences or strong professional experience in the industry.
Desirable criteria
- Accredited specialist knowledge for pharmaceutical production to diploma / BTEC level or equivalent gained through experience.
- NVQ 3 in pharmaceutical manufacturing or equivalent experience.
Experience
Essential criteria
- Portfolio demonstrating competence at environmental monitoring in a GMP environment.
Desirable criteria
- Experience of supervising junior staff within a GMP environment.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Frederick Akuffo
- Job title
- QA Microbiology Manager
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 0207 188 52422
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