Principal Pharmacy Technician

Technicians are responsible for undertaking a broad range of technical duties in the various sections of the pharmacy, to aid in the efficient and effective delivery of pharmacy services to patients and users of the service. This role is intended to provide support to key areas in our department, as outlined in the job description., We are committed to sharing excellence are clinically orientated and use IT to enable change. The department is committed to the use of new technology and we use ASCribe/EMIS, Omnicell electronic storage cabinets and use ChemoCare and TrakCare electronic prescribing systems. The department also has a state of the art dispensing robot to enable efficient supply of medicines, including out of hours. We are proud of quality systems that improve our workflow as we progress with our Medicines Management Programme (using a one-stop concept)., Some aspects may include:
To directly manage technical and dispensary support staff working in this area.
To ensure proper stock control within the Dispensary.
To ensure that the Dispensary provides a safe, accurate and efficient service, which is customer focused and achieves the relevant quality standards in line with national benchmarking and safety metrics.
To ensure the regular quality assurance of all dispensary data held on the Ascribe computer
To co-ordinate rotas for technical staff throughout the department where appropriate.
To participate in the direct management of staff, sickness absence, holidays and timekeeping.
To lead on updating and ensuring compliance with all SOPs within dispensary.
To lead on delivery of training for staff in dispensary and other staff areas groups where necessary.
To support Associate Chief Pharmacists - Operations/Medication Safety Officer in the investigation of incidents relating to dispensary.
To support relevant audit and quality improvement projects relating to dispensary and general Pharmacy Operations functions.
Works with healthcare teams to implement new healthcare services and review, on an ongoing basis, existing services.
Works with Associate Chief Pharmacists, Formularly Pharmacist, Pharmacy Office Staff and other members of the pharmacy team to identify, plan and develop new opportunities for homecare services.
Investigates, develops and reports on the current and future processes for patients consenting to receive homecare medicines management in line with national standards.
Produces quarterly reports on quality and financial indicators on all homecare medicines services for presentation at Trust Drug and Therapeutics Committee.
Works independently to develop and implement SOPs for homecare medicines management .
Ensures compliance with current national homecare medicines management guidance and standards, including RPS standards, through audit and other quality assurance exercises.
Responsible for training and supporting all grades of staff on homecare medicines management.
Monitors compliance with all SOPs relating to homecare.
Act as a superuser for various pharmacy systems including Omnicells, Ascribe, Arim/BD Rowa Robot, Powergate EDI system, MI Databank, software proactively working with Principal Pharmacy Technicians/Pharmacists to deal with daily maintanence issues relating to these systems.
Support Principal Pharmacy Technician - Procurement/Logistics and Informatics on generating bespoke drug specific reports and data analysis when requested.
Act as a key trainer for all of the above pharmacy systems in conjunction with other Principal Pharmacy Technicians keeping department up-to-date with all aspects of using these systems.
Support Principal Pharmacy Technician - Informatics, on developing, updating and ensuring compliance with standard operating procedures on electronic systems in the department.
Support Principal Pharmacy Technician - Informatics in ensuring system security and appropriate use is maintained.
Support Principal Pharmacy Technician - Informatics by attending/dialing in to relevant support meetings with service providers of the above named systems, and operationalizing actions from these.
Work closely with Associate Chief Pharmacist - Aseptics Services, R&D colleagues, and wider pharmacy team to ensure smooth delivery of current clinical trial portfolio in line with GCP.
Support other members of pharmacy team to audit current processes relating to clinical trials to ensure they meet best-practice standards on a rolling basis, producing assurance reports where requested.
Maintain own knowledge of GCP by completing appropriate training on this subject.
Support Associate Chief Pharmacist - Aseptic Services on the set-up, close-down, stock management, training, SOP development and SOP review relating to new clinical trials, working closely with wider regional/national networks to reduce duplication and share best practice.
Support Associate Chief Pharmacist - Aseptic Services in ensuring rigorous financial processes are in place and adhered to in relation to remuneration for trial activity at start-up, and throughout the life of a trial.
Support Associate Chief Pharmacist - Aseptic Services to ensure that deadlines for trial opening are achieved.
Act as a point of support and contact for stakeholders inside/outside of the department in relation to clinical trials and GCP.
Deliver pharmacy clinical trials training to all members of the pharmacy team in conjunction with other Principal Pharmacy Technicians/Associate Chief Pharmacist - Aseptics Services.
Support the Director of Pharmacy and Medicines Optimisation, Associate Chief Pharmacists, and other colleagues in conducting audit and quality improvement work, to provide ongoing assurance that medicines supply and use in the Trust are in line with national best practice standards.
Collate information from electronic systems, audit and other exercises in reports for presentation at relevant committees and groups in the organisation.
Support work streams relating to theTrust Medicines Optimisation strategy where requested by the Director of Pharmacy and Medicines Optimisation.
Work closely with Principal Pharmacy Technician - Education and Training and Associate Chief Pharmacists, to ensure department maintains relevant standards relating to education and training, collaboratively leading on, and delivering on workforce development issues for the department.
Work closely with Principal Pharmacy Technician - Education and Training, to act as an assessor for pre-registration pharmacy technicians and other students in the department.
Proactively support line managers with queries relating to mandatory training and the electronic ESR system.
Support Principal Pharmacy Technician - Education and Training on maintaining departmental training packs, ensuring that these are up-to-date, and collating user feedback upon completion.
Supports junior pharmacy staff in performing their duties.
Continue to gain elements of competence/skills/training relevant to post.
Provides personal managerial support to the Chief Technician.
Support change management, quality improvement projects and service development, that may be outside of area of expertise, in order to encourage our service to be consistent with the Trust ethos 'excellence as our standard'
Undertakes technical checks as defined in the checking procedure, after having been authorized to do so by the Head of Pharmacy services, for those items, which have been clinically checked.
Demonstrate commitment to IWL principles and flexible working patterns, to meet the needs of the
Please check your email address on a regular basis as applicants invited to attend an interview will be notified via this method.
As part of our recruitment process, you will be required to undertake pre-employment screening:
Disclosure and Barring Scheme (previously Criminal Records Bureau)
Where a post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 it may be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Scheme to check for any previous criminal convictions. Should you require a copy of the Trust's Disclosure and Barring Service Policy, please contact a member of the recruitment team on .
It is the policy of North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust that all successful candidates who are new to the Trust who require DBS clearance for the post they have been offered, are required to pay the cost for their DBS certificate. The method of payment for this is via salary deduction from your first month's pay on commencement with the Trust.
Please note the essential qualifications required for the post outlined within the Person Specification. You are required to hold and provide evidence of the necessary qualifications for the post at interview should you be shortlisted.
For any new employees commencing employment with North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust , you will be subject to satisfactory completion of a 6 month probationary period. Please note that internal applications and individuals that are appointed to fixed term appointments of less than 6 months duration are exempt from the probationary period (unless you are an internal applicant currently part way through a probationary period or a bank member of staff).
As part of our pre-employment screening process, all applicants are required to provide references covering their last three years employment history. Applicants are requested to ensure e-mail addresses for all referees are included on their application form. Personal references are not acceptable.
If the hours advertised for the post are up to full time (37.5 hours per week), applications are still welcomed from individuals who may be seeking to work less than full-time hours and all requests will be considered in line with the post being appointed to for the successful applicant.
North Tees & Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust operates a No Smoking Policy., As a supporter of the Armed Forces and an employer of Reservists, North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust are proud to be a signatory of the Armed Forces Covenant, which is a promise by the nation to ensure that those who serve or who have served in the UK Armed Forces (and their families) are treated fairly.
We recognise that reservists and veterans bring a variety of transferable skills and qualities to our workplace, developed through their military careers. Our commitment to supporting the Armed Forces Community has been recognised through the Armed Forces Covenant as a Silver Employer.
What does this mean?
We proactively demonstrate our forces-friendly credentials within our recruitment and selection processes, by having a Guaranteed Interview Scheme for those indicated as part of the Armed Forces Community. We engage with our local and regional Career Transition Partnership representatives and are a member of Step Into Health. We employ veterans and reservists from differing branches of the Armed Forces and actively promote our positive policies for the Armed Forces Community, including our Special Leave policy. We advocate support for defence people issues, including facilitating easier access to Healthcare Services for our patients within the AF Community. We have supported employees through Reservist training, through additional leave for their training and ongoing support under our Special Leave policy.

We are on a continuous journey of improvement and transformation , however our main priority is, and always will be, providing safe and high quality care to our patients every day; the kind of care we would want for ourselves and our loved ones. If you share our passion then apply for this opportunity and help us make our patients' experience the best it can possibly be.
With a budget of around £365m, three hospitals and 5,500 staff, North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust provides hospital-based services to the population of Hartlepool, Stockton on Tees and parts of East Durham and Sedgefield as well as community, therapeutic and screening to a wider population across Durham and Teesside., At North Tees & Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust our main priority is, and always be, to provide safe and high quality care to our patients every day; the kind of care we would want for ourselves and our loved ones.
We want our organisation to be the best place to work with the right staff, in the right roles, at the right time, to ensure we deliver exceptional patient care and experience.
We will support staff through providing an inclusive and supportive workplace with health and well-being initiatives, staff benefits and opportunities for personal and professional development. Staff recognition is very important to us; as well as performance reviews and appraisals, we recognise staff through Star and Team of the month, colleague recognition - a note of thanks, Managers Awards, Shining Stars and Service Awards.
We actively encourage staff involvement with staff networking events and staff survey
"Together we are North Tees & Hartlepool"