Pharmacy Assistant - Patient Services

Working for our Organisation

North Bristol NHS Trust employs over 12,000 staff providing healthcare to the residents of Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset from our award-winning hospital building at Southmead. We are the regional Major Trauma Centre, and an internationally recognised centre of excellence in a range of services and major specialities. Our vision is that by enabling our teams to be the best that they can be, we will provide exceptional healthcare, personally delivered.

North Bristol NHS Trust values all people as individuals. We aim to be an anti-discriminatory organisation and are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. We welcome applicants from all underrepresented groups.

Detailed Job Description and Main Responsibilities

Please see job description for a full list of duties and responsibilities.

Dispensary & Reception Duties

• Receipt of prescriptions and drug requests from patients and staff.
• Selling over the counter medicines to staff and members of the public.
• Handling NHS prescription charge transactions.
• Accurate and timely dispensing prescriptions, including controlled drugs.
• Generation of labels and booking out of medicines using pharmacy stock control system.
• Replenish the stocks of dispensing sundries (bottles, cartons etc.).
• Deals with enquiries from wards, departments and patients.
• Receiving requests and handing out medications to patients and members of staff.
• All activity undertaken within NBT Pharmacy is compliant with Good Distribution Practice (EU GDP 2013/C 343/01) and all relevant departmental procedures.
• Delivering of medication to wards and departments.

Ward Based Services

On wards working closely with the Clinical Pharmacist, Ward-based Technicians and Patient Services Leads to:

• Ensure seamless care in the provision of medicines.
• Facilitating ward-based discharges, maintaining equipment used in the dispensing process including replenishing of medications used.
• Ensure that when patients are transferred between designated wards that information and medication is transferred as appropriate.
• Dispense supply requests as required by Ward-based Technicians and Ward Pharmacists in a timely manner.
• Minimise waste and reduce risk to patients by ensuring appropriate storage of all medicines supplied. Processing items of medication for return or destruction.
• Ensuring appropriate storage of medicines on the ward to decrease medicine related errors.
• Support the review and maintenance of ward stock lists to support a reduction in missed doses and financial cost effectiveness.

Distribution

• Visiting wards to carry out stock checks ordering against stock balances as well as ensuring that stock is rotated, and storage conditions are maintained and fit for purpose.
• Process emergency stock medication requests in a timely manner.
• Issue pharmaceutical products to wards, departments and other hospital units following Standard Operating Procedures.
• Ensure that stock is issued accordingly to stock rotation procedures.
• Deal with routine stock enquiries from wards and departments.
• Taking issued pharmaceutical products back up to the ward/department and ensuring that they are stored securely at ward level.
• Ensure that pharmaceutical products that require transportation off site are dealt with accordingly in line with Standard Operating Procedures.

Person Specification

Education/Training/Qualifications

Essential Criteria

• Good general standard of education demonstrating numeracy and literacy

Desirable Criteria

• Level 2 Buttercups Pharmacy Support Worker – Dispensary units or equivalent

Work Experience

Desirable Criteria

• Previous employment in hospital/community pharmacy

Knowledge/Skills/Abilities

Essential Criteria

• Basic IT competencies – including accurate data entry
• Time management skills
• Good written and spoken English with excellent communication skills

Personal Qualities/Special Circumstances

Essential Criteria

• Ability to work well under pressure, self-motivated, able to work independently as well as part of a team
• Willing to be trained and instructed

We hope that you will decide to join us and become part of this exciting journey, helping us to shape our future together.

As an equal opportunities employer actively working towards a diverse workforce, we aim to recruit and retain a workforce which represents the rich diversity of the local population at all levels and are committed to designing our services around the needs of individual patients and those around them. Anonymous information will be used from your application to ensure we’re meeting our pledge.

The Trust is committed to investing in and caring for all our staff. We will support you in maintaining and improving your health and wellbeing, as well as your career development through management and training support - developing exceptional people for exceptional careers.

BFT is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people, and vulnerable adults.

To comply with Part 7 of the Immigration Act 2016, all applicants must be able to speak fluent English to an appropriate standard which will be assessed at Interview.

If you require sponsorship for a visa to work in the UK, to avoid disappointment, please check to ensure you are eligible under the UKVI points-based system.

The Trust uses electronic new starter forms on Trac to collect personal details. Information collected is securely stored and used to set up the employee record on the ESR HR system.

By applying for this post, you are agreeing to Bristol NHS Foundation Trust transferring the information contained in this application to its preferred applicant management system. If you are offered a job, information will also be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system.

Please be aware of scams – unless specified above, we will only communicate with you via @recruit.trac.jobs or nhs.net e-mails and we will never ask you for any payments.

Important

Please note that if you apply for a position with this Trust, you may be contacted via Trac or via email. This includes invites for job interviews. We therefore recommend that you regularly check your Trac account and email accounts. We may also contact you by texting the mobile number, if provided, on the application form.

Due to the high number of applications that are received for some posts, we may close this vacancy before the advertised closing date. Therefore, please apply for this post as soon as you can, if you are interested and you meet the requirements of the Person Specification.

Only those candidates who clearly demonstrate how they meet the person specification will be shortlisted for this job.

As a guide, interviews should usually take place within 3 weeks of the closing date.

When providing employment reference details, please provide correct work-related email addresses so references can be sought promptly when we are looking