Job overview
We have an exciting opportunity for an enthusiastic and self-motivated pharmacy assistant to join our pharmacy team at Bart’s Health NHS Trust. The post holder must be ready to work in a busy environment and have excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
The role will include the opportunity to work within the main inpatient pharmacy, medicines management roles in clinical areas, ward-based dispensary and the chemotherapy dose-banding unit.
The role will be based at St Bartholomew’s Hospital and is a great opportunity for the right candidate to gain experience of this busy service and develop their existing skill set as well as learning new ones.
Main duties of the job
The key focus of this role is to provide safe and secure stock control within pharmacy inpatients and chemotherapy dose banding dispensary, wards and clinical areas. They will assist in the supply and dispensing of prescribed items, receive and put away stock including dispensary consumables.
The post holder will provide an efficient and effective administrative service, operational and finance support, as well as undertake project work to enhance the service. The post holder will rotate throughout the site and clinical areas and department to gain experience in all areas which includes support in a patient facing role, dispensaries and in the pharmacy distribution area to receive goods from across site, wholesalers and manufacturers.
The post holder will be expected to work with minimum day to day supervision and to use their initiative and be proactive when issues arise. Regular communication within the team needs to be maintained in relation to working practices, procedures and any changes. A good working relationship with colleagues and other healthcare staff needs to be fostered and maintained at all times.
Working for our organisation
Barts Health is one of the largest NHS trusts in the country, and one of Britain’s leading healthcare providers.
The Barts Health group of NHS hospitals is entering an exciting new era on our improvement journey to becoming an outstanding organisation with a world-class clinical reputation. Having lifted ourselves out of special measures, we now have the impetus and breathing space to chart a fresh course in which we are continually striving to improve all our services for patients.
Our vision is to be a high-performing group of NHS hospitals, renowned for excellence and innovation, and providing safe and compassionate care to our patients in east London and beyond. That means being a provider of excellent patient safety, known for delivering consistently high standards of harm-free care and always caring for patients in the right place at the right time. It also means being an outstanding place to work, in which our WeCare values and behaviours are visible to all and guide us in how we work together.
We strive to live by our WeCare values and are committed to promoting inclusion, where every staff member has a sense of belonging. We value our differences and fully advocate, cultivate and support an inclusive working environment.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
The full job description provides an overview of the key tasks and responsibilities of the role, and the person specification outlines the qualifications, skills, experience, and knowledge required. For both documents, please view the attachment/s below.
We are dedicated to being an outstanding place to work and will work with you to get the best experience. We know flexible working is not a one size fits all and will mean something different to everyone. We are inclusive, so if you are interested in flexible working, please speak to the recruiting manager.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
1. GCSE grades A -C or 4-9 • English Language • Maths • Double Science
2. BTEC Level 2 Certificate in the Principles and Practice for Pharmacy Support Staff
Desirable criteria
3. HEE Medicines Optimisation programme or equivalent ie competent to assess PODS and transcribe and order from drug charts
Experience
Essential criteria
4. Experience in customer care environment
5. Experience of working in a pharmacy team
6. Demonstrable stock management experience
Desirable criteria
7. Experience of working in a hospital environment
8. Experience of training others
Skills
Essential criteria
9. IT skills; Able to use Excel and Word proficiently
10. Able to plan own work and the supervision of others in a clear and organised way.
11. Able to work alone or as part of a team with different grades of staff.
12. Attention to detail and accuracy.
13. Able to work to policies and procedures.
14. Able to perform calculations
15. Good time management skills; Able to meet deadlines.
16. Able to communicate well with all members of the team (internal and external to Pharmacy) and externally with customers in a confident manner
17. Excellent communication skills both written and verbal, including on the telephone
18. Able to prioritise own work
19. Confident to work unsupervised, takes initiative and uses own judgement in anticipating and dealing with queries and problems
20. Able to work calmly under pressure and to deadlines
Desirable criteria
21. Manual handling skills