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Job summary

Main area
Pharmacy
Grade
NHS AfC: Band 3
Contract
Fixed term: 9 months (Maternity Leave Cover)
Hours
Full time - 37.5 hours per week
Job ref
196-LIS9612
Employer
Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust
Employer type
NHS
Site
Royal Brompton Hospital
Town
London
Salary
£30,039 - £31,088 p.a. inclusive of HCA
Salary period
Yearly
Closing
22/06/2025 23:59

Employer heading

Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust logo

Medicines Optimisation Pharmacy Assistant

NHS AfC: Band 3

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

We are delighted to invite applications for a newly created post for a Medicines Optimisation Pharmacy Assistant. This is an opportunity to be part of the pharmacy teams in both adult and paediatric respiratory medicine and help to provide medicines optimisation services to patients under the care of the Adult Respiratory Medicine and Children’s Services divisions at the Royal Brompton hospital.

The successful candidate will have good interpersonal skills, with the ability to work to a high standard within the team or on their own initiative. 

Main duties of the job

  • Assisting in the provision of a high-quality patient focussed medicines management service to patients
  • Assisting in the provision of a high-quality pharmacy stores service to clinical areas
  • Helping to ensure that stock levels in clinical areas are appropriate and stock lists reflect the needs of the area
  • Supporting ward teams to maintain safe storage of medications in ward areas
  • Assisting with co-ordination and production of homecare prescriptions

Working for our organisation

On 1st February 2021 the Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals became part of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust – a truly once-in a generation development. Together, we are taking our first steps towards our vision of creating a brand-new centre of excellence, which will be the global leader in the research into and treatment of heart and lung disease in patients from pre-birth to old age. We are developing some exciting plans and we want you to join us – so come and help to change the shape of healthcare for our heart and lung patients world-wide

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Communication:

 

To liaise with nursing staff, multidisciplinary team members and the clinical pharmacy team regarding patient and medication details.

 

To liaise with patients, healthcare professionals and homecare providers as required to facilitate homecare for adult and paediatric respiratory patients.

To maintain clinic lists at the end of each clinic.

 

To work effectively as a team member.

 

To communicate with colleagues in a polite and courteous manner at all times

 

 

Patient/customer care (both direct and indirect)

 

Ward /clinic based role:

 

To support stock control and medicines management on paediatric and adult respiratory clinical areas in liaison with the clinical pharmacy and ward teams.

To prepare documents for paediatric and adult CF clinics in advance and ensure clinic lists have been printed.

 

To support the nursing teams in the organisation of the ward drug storage areas.

 

To assist in the review of paediatric and adult respiratory clinical area stock lists and pharmacy cupboards where applicable.

 

To check that medicine storage areas are clean and tidy.

 

To support ward staff in the appropriate temperature monitoring of medicines and ensure appropriate actions are taken at temperature excursions.

 

To undertake safe and secure storage of medicine audits.

 

To adhere to all ward-based policies including infection control and hand hygiene.

 

To order named patient CIVAS items on ITH web-based portal in readiness for confirmation by the MMPT/ pharmacist.

 

Identify new medicines prescribed and medicines not given and bring to attention of the medicines management pharmacy technicians (MMPT) or clinical pharmacists.

 

Under direction of the MMPT/pharmacist, check patients own drugs for use within the hospital and re-label as required in readiness for checking.

 

To label and dispense discharge prescriptions (TTA) on wards to expedite discharges.

 

Support the pharmacy team in re-ordering non-stock medicines including preparation for discharge.

 

To minimise delays in administration and missed doses by ensuring medicines are available at the appropriate time.

 

Ensure timely transfer, return or disposal of medicines that are no longer required.

 

To collect and deliver medicines to and from paediatric and adult respiratory clinical areas when necessary.

 

Topping up service:

 

To be responsible for the accurate, timely and efficient provision of pharmaceutical items, to paediatric and adult respiratory clinical areas via the 'topping up' process.

 

To top-up the ward stock according to pre-defined levels according to rota.

 

To ensure excess stock is returned to pharmacy.

 

To ensure that, no longer required, non-stock items are returned to pharmacy.

 

To ensure that regular expiry date checks are carried out and that short-dated stock is returned to pharmacy to be used up if appropriate.

 

To ensure that any expired stock is returned to pharmacy for destruction.

 

To assist the MMPT/pharmacist in stock list reviews for paediatric and adult respiratory clinical areas

 

To inform wards and pharmacists on stock 'outages', to chase up orders with the purchasing office and in conjunction with MMPT / pharmacist make alternative arrangements for supplies.

 

To have a working knowledge of pharmacy stock control and ordering systems.

 

Homecare support:

 

To regularly maintain the homecare databases in use by the adult respiratory medicine and paediatric clinical pharmacy teams.

 

To be responsible for reviewing the homecare companies ‘requests’ spreadsheet for adult and paediatric respiratory patients for which prescriptions are required and when and prompt the adult respiratory medicine and paediatric clinical pharmacy teams when patients are overdue, or if a prescription was requested previously but not received yet.

 

To be responsible for printing prescriptions for adult and paediatric respiratory medicine patients which have been requested by the homecare companies.

 

 

People management:

 

To assist in the induction and training of new members of staff, for example student pharmacy technicians, pharmacy assistants and pre-registration pharmacists as appropriate.

 

To identify own training needs and undertake regular Continuing Professional Development (CPD).

 

To attend course and study days as deemed appropriate.

 

To participate in education and training schemes and meetings organised within the department.

 

To participate in all relevant departmental meetings and contribute to effective communication within the department.

 

Information management:

 

To be proficient in the use of the JAC Pharmacy Stock Control and Dispensing computer system, and Trust EPMA systems in order to meet the job requirements. 

 

To be competent in the use of Microsoft Office software.

 

To plan and prioritise workload and to ensure daily, weekly and monthly timetables are met.

 

To be proficient in the use of the Trust electronic patient record system (EPR).

 

To upload homecare prescriptions and other patient information to facilitate homecare, as required by the adult respiratory medicine and paediatric clinical pharmacy teams, to the EPR system in a timely manner.

 

 

Research and development:

 

To provide administration support to the homecare team and adult respiratory medicine and paediatric clinical pharmacy teams with patient and administration audits for the development of new and revised processes in order improve service levels, quality of information and service levels.

 

Further sections:

 

To be aware of and apply relevant legislation such as the Health and Safety at Work Act, Control of Substances Hazardous to Health, GMP and Medicines' Act.

 

To have a working knowledge of all procedures, legislation or national guidelines relating to the storage and dispensing of unlicensed medicinal products, controlled drugs, oral chemotherapy and clinical trials.

 

To at all times practice in accordance with the Code of Ethics of the General Pharmaceutical Council.

 

To uphold the security of drugs and the premises at all times.

 

To participate in the late clinics, weekend and bank holiday rotas as determined by the needs of the Pharmacy Department.

 

To undertake any other duties commensurate with the grade as requested by the Chief or Executive Lead Pharmacist.

 

To abide by the Trust’s Core behaviours for staff and all other Trust policies, codes and practices including standing financial instructions, research governance, clinical governance, patient and public involvement, codes and practices, and health and safety.

 

To maintain satisfactory personal performances and professional standards and to achieve, where possible, agreed objectives described in the annual staff appraisal system undertaken by the Director of Pharmacy and Medicines Management

 

 

Other duties:

 

To undertake any other duties commensurate with the grade as requested.

 

This job description is intended as a basic guide to the scope and responsibilities of the post and is not exhaustive.  It will be subject to regular review and amendment as necessary in consultation with the post holder.

 

Person specification

Education and Qualifications

Essential criteria
  • completed or working towards NVQ2
  • GCSEs Maths and English grade C or equivalent
  • Knowledge of Microsoft systems
Desirable criteria
  • Medicines Optimisation Programme POD Assessment & Transcribing module

Experience and Knowledge

Essential criteria
  • Previous pharmacy experience
  • Working in a hospital or customer orientated environment

Skills and Abillities

Essential criteria
  • Good communication skills
  • Computer literate
  • Able to problem solve
  • Working under pressure
  • Organise and prioritise work

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Timewise helps businesses to attract and develop the best talent through flexible working.Care quality commission - GoodDisability confident employer

Applicant requirements

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Documents to download

Apply online now

Further details / informal visits contact

Name
Amila Selman-Farhat
Job title
Chief Pharmacy Technician - Operations
Email address
[email protected]
Telephone number
0207 351 8908
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