Senior Pharmacy Assistant for Stores & Distribution

An opportunity has arisen for a Senior Pharmacy Assistant within our Pharmacy department at Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust.
Applications are invited from all dispensing assistants including those who are community -based with no previous hospital experience. This is an excellent opportunity to further your pharmacy career and break into the hospital sector.
The successful candidate will support the smooth running of Pharmacy stores and distribution ensuring that medication is supplied safely and accurately in a timely manner. You will be required to undertake a broad range of duties and full training will be given.
The required candidates must have:
- Excellent Communication Skills
- Hold a Level 2 NVQ in Pharmacy services
- Meet the essential criteria of the job specification
The Pharmacy Procurement, Stores, & Distribution team is a forward-thinking Pharmacy technician-led department, providing medicines to clinical areas in the Trust and across the local community using our Wholesale Dealer License. The pharmacy store is automated and there are many opportunities to develop professionally within the team and across the wider pharmacy department.
PLEASE NOTE: We are unable to offer sponsorship for this post, If you are interested in the post and/or would like further information, please contact Chi Kan, Principal pharmacy technician ward automation & Distribution Service Email: [email protected] ) or Kirsty Wither, Senior Technician Procurement & Distribution Email: [email protected] )
+ Managing the day to day running of the receiving and distribution service.
+ Stock Control
+ Training other staff
+ Covering the storekeeper in receiving goods from external suppliers
The Pharmacy Procurement, Stores, & Distribution team and LGT is a forward thinking technician-led department, providing medicines to clinical areas in the Trust and across the local community using our Wholesale Dealer License. The pharmacy store at Lewisham hospital is automated and there are many opportunities to develop professionally within the team and across the wider pharmacy department.
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Working for our organisation
Our people are our greatest asset. When we feel supported and happy at work, this positivity reaches those very people we are here for, the patients. Engaged employees perform at their best and our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) initiatives contribute to cultivate a culture of engagement. We have four staff networks, a corporate EDI Team and a suite of programmes and events which aim to insert the 5 aspirations:
1. Improving representation at senior levels of staff with disabilities, from black, Asian, and ethnic minorities background, identify as LGBTQ+ and women, through improved recruitment and leadership development
2. Widening access (anchor institution) and employability
3. Improving the experience of staff with disability
4. Improving the EDI literacy and confidence of trust staff through training and development
5. Making equalities mainstream, To supervise the provision of an accurate and timely distribution of drugs to Wards, departments and within the pharmacy department. This will include:-
1. Managing the day to day running of the distribution service
2. Stock control
3. Training other staff
4. Covering the storekeeper in receiving goods from external suppliers
Work force
+ You will be responsible for two regular members of staff plus two rotational staff and any students rotating through the Stores and Distribution area.
+ Work will be generated by staff within the pharmacy department and by staff in wards and departments within the hospital and community services.
Partnerships
+ Communications and Relationships
You will work closely with the Chief and Senior Technicians to ensure the smooth running of the Stores and Distribution departments.
You will liaise with pharmacists, technicians and other staff within the Pharmacy department.
You will be communicating with staff from wards and departments around the hospital.
General duties
1. Supervise the day to day running of the distribution section ensuring that all pharmacy assistant duties are completed daily. Liaise with the Chief/Senior Technician(s) appropriately.
2. Organise and ensure daily stock checks are completed making any amendments necessary.
3. Produce and circulate the weekly ward top up rotas taking into account staff sickness and annual leave.
4. Ensure staff availability is sufficient to cover ward top-ups on a daily basis and refer to the Chief/ Senior Technician(s) where necessary.
5. Check and sign off Pharmacy ward top up boxes before releasing them for the porter to take to the ward.
6. Complete the distribution error form for all boxes checked and discuss all errors with affected staff.
7. Report any computer problems to the Pharmacy System Manager.
8. Deal with Stores / distribution queries from wards, other hospital departments and external sources.
9. Update ward top up sheets after liaising with the ward Pharmacist or relevant nurse or ward manager.
10. Run and check To-follow reports from the Pharmacy computer system and supply any out of stock items to wards. Liaise with Order Clerk as necessary.
11. Ensure that internal orders are dealt with promptly and sent to the respective area.
12. Ensure any equipment failure is reported to the appropriate person/ department.
13. Ensure the daily filing of requisition order forms from wards.
14. Ensure the monthly filing is completed for archiving.
15. Input onto the computer system all weekend and out of hour's stock requests, which had not been booked out at the time.
16. Provide ward top up cover in the event of staff absence
17. Provide cover for Storekeeping duties when requested
18. Monitor and record environmental temperatures within the Stores and Distribution area. Report any out of range temperatures immediately to the Chief/Senior Technician(s).
19. Organise the distribution staff to perform the three monthly expiry date check of the drugs kept in the departments and clinics, which are not topped up regularly.
20. Responsible for ensuring the daily cleaning of stores area & trolleys is performed and the log completed.
21. Maintain the Porter's log for delivering the green boxes & packages to the wards & departments.
22. Act as a witness for the NVQ level 2 & 3 students while they cover the elements in stores & distribution
We reserve the right to close the post before the stated closing date, please apply early. We do not contact applicants with the outcome of the shortlisting. If you have been shortlisted, you will receive an invite to an assessment day or interview.
As a local employer and anchor institution we work closely with our community to recruit locally and we welcome applications from the widest variety of people to ensure our workforce are reflective of the local communities which we serve. We encourage all suitable candidates to apply including if you are Black, Asian or other ethnic minorities, live with a disability (visible or not) or are LGBT+. We have a number of active staff networks including Disability, LGBT+, Multicultural Inclusion and Women's staff networks to bring staff together and celebrate diversity across our whole workforce.
Please note, not all roles will meet the criteria for a skilled worker visa.

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, (LGT), is a community-focused provider of local and acute care, delivering high-quality services to over one million people living across the London boroughs of Lewisham, Greenwich, and Bexley. We provide whole-life care and are here to support our communities to live healthier lives as well as taking care of them when they need us the most.
Employing almost 7,500 colleagues, affectionately known as Team LGT, we provide services at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich, University Hospital Lewisham, and at over a dozen community settings in Lewisham. We also provide some services at Queen Mary's Hospital in Sidcup.
We have recently launched our new vision and values to mark the LGT10 - the tenth anniversary of our Trust forming in 2013. Our trust vision is to be exceptional. In the quality of our patient care; our support for colleagues; and in the difference we make through our partnerships and in our communities.
To achieve this we value Respect, Compassion, and Inclusion; Being accountable over staying comfortable; Listening over always knowing best; and Succeeding together over achieving alone. You can read more about our visions and values here
Our hospitals and community sites provide a wide range of inpatient and outpatient services, as well as emergency and planned care. The Trust is rated as "good" or "outstanding" in over three-quarters of the services inspected by the Care Quality Commission.
Every year our work includes performing 10,000 procedures in our theatres; bringing seven and a half thousand new lives into the world; carrying out 570,000 visits to patients in their homes or communities and providing emergency care for more than 300,000 patients arriving in our busy Urgent and Emergency Departments.
LGT is a centre for the education and training of medical students enrolled with King's College London's GKT School of Medical Education. We are a training centre for nurses, midwives and allied health professionals. We are pioneering new roles that will support the changing needs of our patients and are one of the largest employers of physician associates in the country.
We are committed to working with our partners to deliver the best outcomes for our local communities. This means playing an active role in the South East London Integrated Care System (ICS), and in formal partnerships including the South East London Acute Provider Collaborative, provider partnerships with our local mental health trusts and borough-based boards of the ICS in Bexley, Greenwich and Lewisham.