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Job summary

Main area
Pharmacy
Grade
NHS AfC: Band 3
Contract
6 months (Fixed term until 27/02/2026)
Hours
Full time - 37.5 hours per week (Monday to Friday 9-17:15, Weekends, bank holidays, early and late shifts as per rota.)
Job ref
321-CSS-7381563-B3
Employer
Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Employer type
NHS
Site
John Radcliffe Hospital
Town
Oxford
Salary
£24,937 - £26,598 per annum pro rata
Salary period
Yearly
Closing
26/08/2025 23:59

Employer heading

Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust logo

Dispensary & Ward Based Pharmacy Assistant

NHS AfC: Band 3

Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is one of the largest NHS teaching trusts in the country. It provides a wide range of general and specialist clinical services and is a base for medical education, training and research.

 

The Trust comprises of four hospitals - the John Radcliffe Hospital, Churchill Hospital and Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre in Headington and the Horton General Hospital in Banbury.

 

Our values, standards and behaviours define the quality of clinical care we offer and the professional relationships we make with our patients, colleagues and the wider community. We call this Delivering Compassionate Excellence and its focus is on our values of compassion, respect, learning, delivery, improvement and excellence. 

 

Many of our recruitment programmes use Value Based Interviewing to identify those who have the skills we seek, who share our values and who are able to deliver compassionate excellence from the outset. We know that this makes a significant difference to your job satisfaction and above all the outcomes and experience of our patients and their families. For more information about our Values and Value Based Interviewing please visit www.ouh.nhs.uk/about/vision-and-values


 

Job overview

Hello!

My name is Alice Smilie, I am the Operational Manager of the John Radcliffe Pharmacy. I am privileged to lead our very hardworking, friendly, and committed Dispensary team in providing a dispensary service, supplying inpatient, outpatient, and discharge medication to Patients of the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

We are looking to recruit a highly motivated Pharmacy assistant with a positive outlook to support our team in ensuring that our patients receive the best service possible. The successful applicant will have previous hospital or community pharmacy experience and hold their NVQ level 2 in Pharmacy services or equivalent.

Main duties of the job

Key roles include:

  • Opportunity to work in both ward and dispensary area.
  • Work in reception area taking in prescriptions
  • Delivery of high-quality pharmacy services for out-patients 
  • Labelling and dispensing prescriptions
  • To be aware of and be involved in customer service
  • Working as part of a team
  • Returning ward stock.
  • Assisting the wards with stock management
  • Relocation of patients own medication.

 About you:

  • You will respond to enquiries and requests from staff, patients and carers and ensure appropriate and accurate information is readily available, and to escalate questions and problems to other members of the pharmacy team when needed. You will be expected to form good working relationships with staff from all the different groups within the Clinical and Pharmacy team.
  • You should have experience of working as a qualified Pharmacy Dispensing Assistant, using computer systems for dispensing and stock control and have good communication, be well organised and able to use your own initiative.
  • This post would suit somebody with either a hospital pharmacy background, or with community pharmacy experience wishing to make a change into the hospital environment, for which appropriate training will be provided. You must have successfully achieved the relevant units of pharmacy services skills NVQ level 2 (QCF) or an equivalent GPhC accredited training programme.

Working for our organisation

Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is one of the largest NHS teaching trusts in the country. It provides a wide range of general and specialist clinical services and is a base for medical education, training and research. Find out more here  www.ouh.nhs.uk

The Trust comprises four hospitals - the John Radcliffe Hospital, Churchill Hospital and Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre in Headington and the Horton General Hospital in Banbury.

Our values, standards and behaviours define the quality of clinical care we offer and the professional relationships we make with our patients, colleagues and the wider community. We call this Delivering Compassionate Excellence and its focus is on our values of compassion, respect, learning, delivery, improvement and excellence. These values put patients at the heart of what we do and underpin the quality healthcare we would like for ourselves or a member of our family. Watch how we set out to deliver compassionate excellence via the OUH YouTube channel.

The dispensary team is a friendly and hardworking team of 25 staff ranging from Apprentice Assistants, to band 7 Technicians, this role is ideal for gaining that experience to progress further in your career.

This is a full-time position, 37.5 hours per week Mon-Friday, 9:00-17:15. Flexible working options would also be considered.  You will also be required to participate in weekend working on a 1:6 rota basis, bank holiday, early and late duty rotas as per rota.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please refer to the description above and to the job description.

This will be a combined role with both dispensary and rotational ward responsibilities.

Person specification

Essential/Desirable

Essential criteria
  • NVQ2 in pharmaceutical sciences
  • Experienced dispenser
  • Experience of stock management
  • Able to work as part of a team and independently
  • Proven time management skills
  • Able to use own initiative appropriately
  • Good verbal communication skills
  • Willing to travel between sites
  • Enthusiastic and responsible attitude
  • Ability to work well under pressure
  • Adaptable to change
  • Respectful towards colleagues and patients
  • Willing to work in clinical areas with infectious diseases patients
Desirable criteria
  • Previous NHS experience
  • Experience of using the local pharmacy computer system
  • Experience of hospital pharmacy
  • Well organised
  • A good working knowledge of Microsoft Office programs
  • Experience of a changing work environment

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Fair Train work experience quality standard - gold standardVeteran AwareApprenticeships logoNo smoking policyPositive about disabled peopleArmed Forces Covenant (Silver Award)Embracing Equality Diversity InclusionDisability confident employerStonewall equality policy. Equality and justice for lesbians, gay men, bisexual and trans people.Prince's Trust - Proud to support the Prince's trust - Youth can do itStep into healthArmed Forces Covenant

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.

Application numbers

Please note that this job advertisement will close automatically once the application limit is reached, regardless of whether this occurs before the advertised closing date.

Documents to download

Apply online now

Further details / informal visits contact

Name
Rebecca Somerville
Job title
Senior Pharmacy Technician, JR Dispensary
Email address
[email protected]
Telephone number
01865 221502
Additional information

Additional contact information

If you are interested in an informal discussion about this role, we would be very happy to hear from you. You are welcome to call or email to make an appointment so that we can show you around and answer your questions.

Alternative contacts regarding this role are:

 Hannah Newton-Oakes ([email protected]) Senior Technician for Dispensary or Charlotte Woodward ([email protected]) Senior Technician for Stores.

Emma Heyden ([email protected]), Lead Technician for Medicines Management

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