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Job summary

Main area
Pharmacy Technician
Grade
Band 5
Contract
18 months (Fixed Term)
Hours
37.5 hours per week (Full-time)
Job ref
203-SS1148
Employer
South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust
Employer type
NHS
Site
Warwick Hospital
Town
Warwick
Salary
£31,049 - £37,796 per annum
Salary period
Yearly
Closing
Today at 23:59

Employer heading

South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust logo

EPR - Digital Pharmacy Technician

Band 5

South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust is one of the top performing organisations within the NHS. Our staff think this is a great place to work and we hope you will agree. We have recently been rated as 'Outstanding' by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) following our most recent inspection.

We provide services across Warwickshire and beyond ranging from Hospitals in Warwick, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Royal Leamington Spa and Shipston-on Stour to Community Services across the whole county. This includes our Community Teams in North Warwickshire.

We are a progressive, expanding organisation with great ambition around improving quality, integrating pathways and delivering high levels of productivity. Over 6000 people work for the Trust and many of them have been here a long time. People find they don’t need to go elsewhere to find a fulfilling career in healthcare. 

The first thing you will notice about us is how we take our values seriously. We believe that our values underpin everything we do. If you are interested in a role with us you need to make sure our values match your own.

Our values can be summed up in one sentence. We are ‘Trusted to provide inclusive, safe, effective and compassionate care’. Throughout the recruitment process you will be asked to think about how you demonstrate these values and how they impact on your work. It doesn’t matter what role you do, whether it is patient facing or not, we are all working in the same way with our values at the core.

Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) Checks

Many of the roles we advertise have a requirement for a DBS check to be carried out. If you are successful for a role and it requires a DBS check the Trust will carry out the initial check and subscription to the DBS Update Service, however successful candidates will be expected to cover the associated costs . Details of this will be sent to successful candidates in their offer letter.

Probationary Period

All new staff to the Trust will be subject to a standard 6 month probationary period, the details of which will duly follow in your contract of employment.

Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion

South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust is committed to creating and sustaining a positive and inclusive working environment for all our employees. Our aim is to ensure that employees are equally valued and respected and that our organisation is representative of all members of society. We define diversity as valuing everyone as an individual – we value our employees, job applicants, students, patients and visitors as people. This is reflected within our values of being Inclusive, Safe, Effective, Compassionate and Trusted.

As part of our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion we encourage all applicants to complete a short survey. This can be accessed via the link below:

https://forms.office.com/e/ahWY3eAGM2

We appreciate you completing the survey.

Agile and Flexible Working

All our staff will have a work base. However the Trust operates as an Agile Working Team therefore staff may be working from home on a regular basis as required by the service. However, occasionally travel around Warwickshire and into your base will be required so access to your own transport would be helpful.

The Trust also welcome staff to work flexibly and we would welcome the conversation at interview regarding flexible working.

Staff Benefits

The Trust offer a wide range of additional benefits to staff. Anyone who joins us on a substantive basis can assess things such as the Lease Car Scheme, Electronics Scheme, Discounted Leisure and Travel, Cycle to work scheme amongst many others available. 

Car Parking

The Trust currently have limited availability of car parking spaces, as such are operating a waiting list for new starters joining the organisation. 

To keep up to date on our latest recruitment activity follow us on twitter @swftrecruit or look us up on Facebook (Recruitment - South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust).


Job overview

We are delighted to offer this exciting opportunity to progress your career by joining our friendly, dynamic & forward-thinking pharmacy team at HSJ award winning Trust, SWFT!

We are committed to providing a high-quality, safe & effective pharmacy service that makes a real difference to our patients, and we are looking for highly-motivated individuals to join our well-integrated digital team to achieve this.

In this role, you will assist with the implementation and rollout of a new EPR system across multiple sites and support the pharmacy service in providing digital support to the wider pharmacy team. 

This posts open to applicants who are qualified Pharmacy Technicians registered with the GPhC. Prior experience in similar fields is required for this role. Experience of hospital pharmacy is not essential as you will be well-supported in training and developing into this role, however it would be a strong advantage.

This role is primarily based between Warwick & George Eliot hospitals, which have excellent transport links to Birmingham, Solihull, Coventry and surrounding areas.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will work as part of the Wider Digital pharmacy team in supporting the development of the Trust EPR.

The post holder may be required to support with the smooth running of every aspect of pharmacy digital systems in support of EPR and digital pharmacy services.

The post holder will be required to maintain a variety of pharmacy IT hardware, ranging from computers and printers to various automated dispensing systems across the Trust.

The post holder will support the introduction, application, training and maintenance of any new digital medicine management systems such as EPR.

The post holder is required to prepare and disseminate a range of routine and other ad-hoc reports from various digital systems.

The post holder will be required to have an in-depth understanding of all departments and processes in Pharmacy in order to support digital medicine management systems such as EPR and deliver training to staff.

Working for our organisation

Come and join a Trust rated Outstanding by the CQC. South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust have been rated as outstanding following our latest inspection by the CQC and we are recruiting new staff to come and help us improve even further. In addition our staff survey results have placed us 4th in the country for recommended place to work.

We provide services across Warwickshire and beyond ranging from Hospitals in Warwick, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Royal Leamington Spa and Shipston-on Stour to Community Services across the county. We are a progressive, expanding organisation with great ambition around improving quality, integrating pathways and delivering high levels of productivity.

Our values can be summed up in one sentence. We are ‘Trusted to provide safe, inclusive, effective and compassionate care’. Throughout the recruitment process you will be asked to think about how you demonstrate these values and how they impact on your work. It doesn’t matter what role you do, whether it is patient facing or not, we are all working in the same way with our values at the core.

As part of our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion we encourage all applicants to complete a short survey. This can be accessed via the link below:

https://forms.office.com/e/ahWY3eAGM2

We appreciate you completing the survey.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Key Working Relationships

All users of digital medicine management systems such as EPR ,

Senior project members and other departmental staff,

Third parties such as the Department of Health, and EPR supplier

Key staff in the Information and Communication Technology Department.

External providers of digital medicine management systems, software houses, automation developments, helpdesks, etc.

National IT networks for the development of digital medicine management software, supplier user groups, and relevant project leads within and outside the Trust,

IT project teams,

Trust subsidiary companies (Innovate and SWFT Clinical Services Ltd,)

Other members of local ICB

Duties & Responsibilities

  • Engage in the JEPR-Oracle project by:
  • Engage with wider project team,
  • Assist with reviewing and comparison of datasets and requirements from existing and future systems,
  • Implement agreed actions to achieve project objectives
  • Work across multiple sites to promote and implement project
  • Assist and support with training and go-live support as part of project rollouts

To provide digital medicine management support to the Pharmacy department as a whole, including:

  • Assisting in the identification and resolution of user issues with specialised pharmacy digital medicine management software,
  • Maintaining specialised pharmacy software to ensure that the department is able to provide an uninterrupted service to the wider Trusts,
  • Maintaining specialised pharmacy hardware, including robotic dispensing and storage solutions,
  • Analyse information to diagnose the cause of complex faults in pharmacy IT systems, and liaising with helpdesks/support providers & pharmacy managers to plan and implement solutions to these,
  • Commissions work from the Trust ICT Department, to solve problems with Pharmacy systems which do not relate to specialist applications or cannot speedily be resolved,
  • Provide cross-site pharmacy IT support to Trust subsidiary and STP Pharmacy departments when needed,
  • Prepares, validates and disseminates routine data reports required by finance and contracts managers, lead pharmacists, pharmacy managers, external customers, procurement specialists, creditor and debtor payment staff, and clinical departments undertaking audit.
  • Responding to complex queries or urgent queries on an ad-hoc basis.
  • Where queries cannot be answered with standard reports, obtaining information from pharmacy systems through the creation of bespoke reports using a variety of data sources and reporting systems.
  • Analysing and validating commercially sensitive and confidential data and other outputs in relation to requests for pharmacy information for accuracy, legibility and compliance with legal requirements, prior to dissemination.
  • Supporting the overall operation and technical competency of the computer systems and equipment in Pharmacy, and any systems outside of Pharmacy which impact the provision of medicines management or storage. o Ensuring appropriate records are maintained.
  • Promoting good communication to ensure efficient working throughout the department. o Delivering induction and refresher training to Pharmacy and nonPharmacy staff in the appropriate use of specialised software in the areas of Medicines Management and of Pharmacy.
  • Supporting junior colleagues 
  • To assist in the development of pharmacy services by:
  • Contributing to the planning of IT requirements to fulfil future Pharmacy service needs and Trust information needs in line with strategy, and participate in the actions needed to implement this,
  • Contributing to the creation and maintenance of relevant policies and procedures regarding the appropriate and correct use of Pharmacy IT software and hardware,
  • Maintaining an awareness of current developments in, and the use of, IT in pharmacy services (robotic storage, procurement systems, electronic prescribing, etc.) by liaising with relevant bodies, outside agencies, special interest groups and other pharmacy departments,
  • Assisting with the development of IT projects for the department and being able to advise the Pharmacy Manager and senior Trust staff on the application of such.
  • Adapting existing systems to improve departmental workflow.
  • Influencing software houses and hardware suppliers to meet the Trust’s needs when developing software and systems through participation in national networks and user groups.
  • Assisting in the installation of approved software upgrades to ensure that the most recent release is in place and full benefit is being gained from our systems. Normally this will need to be done outside normal working hours.
  • Taking part in periodic stocktakes to prove the validity of the stock management function of the systems and satisfy the requirements of internal and external auditors
  • Providing audit data to validate Trust processes in line with local and national policy

General

In addition, contribute to weekends, bank holiday and other departmental rotas

To undertake other duties as required by your line manager in accordance with this grade of post.

 

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria
  • BTEC/NVQ3 in Pharmaceutical Sciences
  • ACPT Qualification
  • UK Professional registration as a Pharmacy Technician
  • Professional registration with the GPhC and minimum of 1 year’s post qualification experience
  • Demonstrate continuing professional developments to meet statutory requirements
Desirable criteria
  • Formal mentoring, coaching or preceptorship training

Experience

Essential criteria
  • Broad experience of delivery of pharmaceutical care in hospital pharmacy
  • Fluent IT user
  • Multidisciplinary working
  • Relationship building with internal and external customers
  • Use of IT databases and Excel
  • Problem solving
  • Training of staff
  • Involvement in service development
  • Triage of errors and faults in IT hardware and software
  • Using data sources to produce reports for a variety of requestors
Desirable criteria
  • Writing and validation of adhoc reports using various reporting tools (e.g. Crystal/SQL/PowerBI)

Skills

Essential criteria
  • Understanding of how Hospital Pharmacy IT systems operate
  • Familiarity with Pharmacy stock control software using Pharmacy systems management software, ideally JAC
  • Familiarity with EPMA / IPPMA / EPR
  • Knowledge of PC hardware, operating systems and applications software
  • Understanding of the Data Protection Act and Caldicott requirements, and general awareness of Security and Confidentiality issues
Desirable criteria
  • Pharmacy Robotics including electronic drug storage solutions
  • Implementing and developing clinical pharmacy services within an EPR / EPMA system

Personal Qualities

Essential criteria
  • Team player and competent to work alone
  • Patient
  • Enthusiastic; self-motivator and able to motivate others
  • Professional credibility
  • Confident
  • Approachable
  • Knows own limitations and able to refer appropriately
  • Able to demonstrate clear thinking and make defendable judgments
  • Innovative; able to question existing practices & implement more efficient methods
  • Appreciates feedback

Other

Essential criteria
  • Able to participate in weekend and bank holiday rota and 7-day service as needed
  • Able to work unsocial hours as needed
  • Able to work across site and travel to other venues for meetings

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Apprenticeships logoNo smoking policyPositive about disabled peopleAge positiveDisability confident leaderInvestors in People: GoldImproving working livesMindful employer.  Being positive about mental health.Care quality commission - OutstandingStonewall equality policy. Equality and justice for lesbians, gay men, bisexual and trans people.Step into healthArmed Forces Covenant

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

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
Mike Wyatt
Job title
Principal Technician
Email address
[email protected]
Additional information

01926 495321  Ext: 4482

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