Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust
Senior Pharmacy Assistant
The closing date is 21 December 2025
Are you a qualified Pharmacy dispenser looking for a new challenge?
We are seeking to recruit enthusiastic and motivated Senior Pharmacy Assistants on a full or part-time basis to work within the busy Pharmacy Department. We have positions available at the Alexandra Hospital supporting the dispensary team supplying medications for TTOs, inpatient supply and outpatients.
Pharmacy Assistants are vital members of the Pharmacy team. You will be a strong and confident team player, demonstrate professionalism at all times and act as a role model for other assistants, taking responsibility to ensure you prepare medication in accordance with the policies and procedures.
You will work as part of a multidisciplinary team working closely with Pharmacists, Technicians and other Assistants.
Main duties of the job
Duties of the role include but are not limited to:
* Interpret and dispense prescriptions on a patient specific basis for in-patients, outpatients and discharge under the supervision of a team pharmacist/accuracy checking technician
* Ensuring all work is carried out to a high degree of accuracy, safely and efficiently following current standard operating procedures of the department on a daily basis
* To input prescription data into the pharmacy computer system ensuring high levels of accuracy
* To supply controlled drugs on request from designated clinical areas and for discharge / outpatient prescriptions, in accordance with departmental procedures and in compliance with related legislation regarding record keeping, storage and transportation of controlled drugs
* To maintain and replenish identified stock or emergency supplies on a daily basis. To record and monitor medicines room and refrigerator temperatures to ensure storage conditions are within the defined parameters as delegated
* To replace or rotate short dated medicines where appropriate to minimise wastage
* To relay complete and accurate information, recognising self-limitations and referring to appropriate person
* To take appropriate daily action to ensure medication requiring delivery is available to individual patients
* To plan own work, liaising with manager to ensure appropriate management of ward/clinical area work
See job description for full range of duties
About us
Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust is a large acute and specialised hospital trust that provides a range of local acute services to the residents of Worcestershire and more specialised services to a larger population in Herefordshire and beyond.
The Trust operates hospital-based services from three sites in Kidderminster, Redditch and Worcester.
Our workforce is more than 7,000 strong, and our caring staff are recognised as providing good and outstanding patient‑centred care. You could be one of them.
We are committed to recruiting the best people to work with us. Our values, which we ask all staff to demonstrate, underpin our everyday work and remain firmly at the heart of all we do.
Being open and honest
Ensuring people feel cared for
Showing respect to everyone
We are proud to have achieved Timewise accreditation - this means we are committed to embedding flexible working within our organisation as a flex positive employer.
DBS Checks and Costs
Any applicants who are offered posts requiring a DBS check as part of their employment check will have the cost of this check (at the current rate) deducted from their salary. Please see link in SupportingInformation section for more details on DBS checks and costs.
Job responsibilities
The post holder will be responsible for:
Dispensing Duties:
To interpret and dispense prescriptions on a patient specific basis for in-patients and discharge under the supervision of a team pharmacist/accuracy checking technician.
Ensuring all work is carried out to a high degree of accuracy, safely and efficiently following current standard operating procedures of the department on a daily basis.
To successfully complete, a dispensing accuracy assessment to demonstrate competency in dispensing on an on-going basis and once completed to maintain competency accordingly.
To input prescription data into the pharmacy computer system ensuring high levels of accuracy.
To supply controlled drugs on request from designated clinical areas and for discharge / outpatient prescriptions, in accordance with departmental procedures and in compliance with related legislation regarding record keeping, storage and transportation of controlled drugs.
To maintain and replenish identified stock or emergency supplies on a daily basis. To record and monitor medicines room and refrigerator temperatures as delegated to ensure storage conditions are withinthe defined parameters.
To replace or rotate short dated medicines where appropriate to minimise wastage.
Support with stock checks
To relay complete and accurate information, recognising self-limitations and referring to appropriate person.
To take appropriate daily action to ensure medication requiring delivery is available to individual patients.
To plan own work, liaising with manager to ensure appropriate management of ward/clinical area work.
Other Duties and Responsibilities:
To dispose of waste products according to the Trust waste policy including appropriate handling of corrosive materials, cytotoxics and flammable substances.
To identify stock shortages and place orders communicating with the Acute Unit staff regarding urgency and availability.
To use a variety of communication techniques appropriate to circumstances preventing barriers to understanding in order to provide advice to patients on the medicine supply, estimating waiting times, arranging for items to be ordered/delivered. To assist patients in obtaining necessary medicine supplies e.g. liaising between the doctor and the patient to ensure that prescriptions are available where appropriate. To respect the patients confidentiality and the sensitive nature of information. Confirming the patients understanding.
To undertake, complete and pass mandatory and recommended training programmes.
To carry out record keeping and data collection data for audit purposes.
To comply with requirements of statutory regulations, including Medicines Act, Misuse of Drugs Act and Regulations, Health and Safety at Work Act, Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH), etc. and local operating procedures to ensure that the work is to a high standard (accurate).
To maintain the security of the medicines within Pharmacy departments at all times To undertake other duties commensurate with this grade of post in agreement with the relevant line manager according to service requirements.
See attached document for further information.
Person Specification
Experience
* Experience of working flexibly within a team
* Experience of accurately dispensing medication
* Recent hospital proven experience of successfully delivering technical pharmacy services as a Pharmacy Assistant
* Experience of operating/utilising an electronic prescription tracking system
Qualifications
* Holds, or is working towards, level 2 in Pharmacy services (previously known as NVQ Level 2 in pharmacy technical services) or equivalent.
* GCSE (or equivalent) grade C/4 or above in Maths and English
Skills
* Have the ability to deal with multiple queries and with changes in priority of workload
* Able to communicate effectively using a variety of methods (written/verbal/presentation) with a wide range of people
* Able to meet deadlines, prioritise tasks and manage time effectively within a busy working environment whilst producing work to the required standard.
* Working in a pressured environment
* Skilled at using Microsoft Office to produce word‑processed documents e.g. work ro‑tas (MS Word) memorandums and emails (MS Outlook).
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Employer name
Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust
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