Lead Pharmacy Assistant Technical Officer

This is a new, exciting opportunity for a pharmacy assistant to join our dynamic, innovative team who are dedicated to improving our services within the pharmacy department. You will work with the operations and medicines management teams to lead the dispensary service and implement, deliver and continually improve services provided for both in-patient and patients cared for by our various community mental health teams.

As a Lead Pharmacy ATO at Bethlem Royal Hospital, you'll play a pivotal role in supporting our pharmacy department. You will be responsible for:

Leading and managing the day-to-day activities of our dispensary team.
Ensuring the accurate and timely preparation, dispensing, and distribution of medications to various hospital departments.
Providing guidance and training to junior staff, ensuring excellent patient care.

We are looking for someone with experience and a passion for this area of work in hospital pharmacy with natural leadership qualities. Your role will involve helping to implement, deliver and continually improve the Pharmacy services within the pharmacy Department at Bethlem Royal Hospital

You must have excellent communication skills and enjoy working in a large multi-disciplinary team. You must also be friendly, approachable, adaptable, flexible, willing to learn new skills and committed to continuous professional development.

The department actively promotes development, education and training. To apply you will need to have good GCSEs or equivalent and obtained a full NVQ level 2 in pharmacy services or equivalent.

When appropriate entry criteria are met you will be expected to undertake relevant training and development to become an Accuracy Checking ATO (meeting the requirements of the nationally agreed framework). Adhere to the agreed in house framework for accuracy checking of medicines by ATOs and participate in daily checking slots once qualified.

This is a full time post and the post holder will be required to participate in the weekend rota.

South London and the Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust provide the widest range of NHS mental health services in the UK. We are a world leading Trust in research, working closely with the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King's College London. Our services include the Maudsley Hospital, Lambeth Hospital and Bethlem Royal Hospital. We are also part of King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre.

The pharmacy department provides a clinical and dispensing service to wards and community teams in Croydon, Southwark, Lambeth and Lewisham across four hospital sites and a wide variety of community mental health teams. We also provide information about medication to both staff and patients to improve understanding and contribute to evidence based care.

Job purpose

§ To plan, supervise and prioritise daily workload within the dispensary, producing staff rotas to ensure appropriate staffing and skill mix.

§ To support the Operations Manager to ensure the dispensary runs efficiently and is patient and customer focused.

§ To support the provision of ward based services relating to the supply of medicines.

§ To work closely with the Operations Manager and Lead Pharmacy technicians to ensure that training needs for ATOs and PTPT apprentices are met and their relevant competencies are completed.

Are you a passionate and experienced pharmacy assistant looking to take the next step in your career? Do you thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic healthcare environment? If so, we have an exciting opportunity for you!