Job Description
The following are the core responsibilities of the Pharmacy Technician. There may be, on occasion, a requirement to carry out other tasks; this will be dependent upon factors such as workload and staffing levels. The pharmacy technician will work within their scope of clinical practice and: Provide support and training to existing prescription teams to support and facilitate: Responding to prescription requests from community patients, nursing/care home staff, pharmacy staff and GPs, processing them within 48 hours for routine prescriptions and same day for urgent prescriptions. This can include re-routing prescriptions to out of hours pharmacies for same day delivery.
Process monthly prescriptions for nursing/care homes, checking for changes and adherence/over-ordering issues. Use practice and CCG templates to record near patient monitoring for high risk drugs. Identify blood tests, recalls and reviews using established protocols and forward these to the appropriate clinician. Support and respond to medicines related queries from medical and nursing colleagues and from patients and relatives both face to face, via phone or via email.
Queries can include issues with interactions or ADRs, availability of stock, swallowing difficulties, cost-effectiveness, urgent requests or extra supplies. Review hospital discharge notifications and outpatient hospital letters and reconcile medication against current repeats, flagging up and correcting discrepancies. Promote safe use of medication, reporting of medicines related incidents and pro-actively preventing safeguarding incidents. Use knowledge of GP computer prescribing systems and community pharmacy dispensing systems to advise on solving problems related to prescribing/dispensing and other areas to develop the skills of practice and pharmacy staff.
Support the review of care home procedures, making recommendations for potential improvements. Observe the principles of clinical governance when developing policies, protocols, guidelines, SOPs and procedures. Support practice prescribing budgets by on-going monitoring, audit and analysis of drug use and support practices in reviewing, developing and enhancing cost-effective prescribing. This includes staying aware of latest QIPP and other cost targets.
Help review medication with the pharmacists and make recommendations for prescribing changes to improve outcome and ensure prescribing of the most cost-effective product.
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