Job overview
Are you a passionate and experienced pharmacy assistant looking to take the next step in your career? Do you thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic healthcare environment? If so, we have an exciting opportunity for you!
The Pharmacy department is looking for Lead Pharmacy Assistant Technical Officer to become part of our friendly, patient centred team at SLaM (Post holders will be based at Bethlem Royal Hospital with visits to Ladywell unit at Lewisham hospital expected as part of the role)
This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced and qualified pharmacy assistant to join our dynamic, innovative team who are dedicated to improving our services within the pharmacy department. You will work with the operations and medicines management teams to lead the dispensary service and implement, deliver and continually improve services provided for both in-patient and patients cared for by our various community mental health teams.
As a Lead Pharmacy ATO at Bethlem Royal Hospital, you'll play a pivotal role in supporting our pharmacy department. You will be responsible for:
1. Leading and managing the day-to-day activities of our dispensary team.
2. Ensuring the accurate and timely preparation, dispensing, and distribution of medications to various hospital departments.
3. Providing guidance and training to junior staff, ensuring excellent patient care.
Main duties of the job
We are looking for someone with experience and a passion for this area of work in hospital pharmacy with natural leadership qualities. Your role will involve helping to implement, deliver and continually improve the Pharmacy services within the pharmacy Department at Bethlem Royal Hospital
You must have excellent communication skills and enjoy working in a large multi-disciplinary team. You must also be friendly, approachable, adaptable, flexible, willing to learn new skills and committed to continuous professional development.
The department actively promotes development, education and training. To apply you will need to have good GCSEs or equivalent and obtained a full NVQ level 2 in pharmacy services or equivalent.
When appropriate entry criteria are met you will be expected to undertake relevant training and development to become an Accuracy Checking ATO (meeting the requirements of the nationally agreed framework). Adhere to the agreed in house framework for accuracy checking of medicines by ATOs and participate in daily checking slots once qualified.
This is a full time post and the post holder will be required to participate in the weekend rota.
Working for our organisation
South London and the Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust provide the widest range of NHS mental health services in the UK. We are a world leading Trust in research, working closely with the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London. Our services include the Maudsley Hospital, Lambeth Hospital and Bethlem Royal Hospital. We are also part of King’s Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre.
The pharmacy department provides a clinical and dispensing service to wards and community teams in Croydon, Southwark, Lambeth and Lewisham across four hospital sites and a wide variety of community mental health teams. We also provide information about medication to both staff and patients to improve understanding and contribute to evidence based care.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Job purpose
§To plan, supervise and prioritise daily workload within the dispensary, producing staff rotas to ensure appropriate staffing and skill mix.
§To support the Operations Manager to ensure the dispensary runs efficiently and is patient and customer focused.
§To support the provision of ward based services relating to the supply of medicines.
§To work closely with the Operations Manager and Lead Pharmacy technicians to ensure that training needs for ATOsand PTPT apprentices are met and their relevant competencies are completed.
To view the main duties and responsibilities, please see the attached the Job Description and Person Specification.
Person specification
Education and training
Essential criteria
4. NVQ level 2 / BTEC level 2 in pharmacy services or equivalent
5. Holds national level 3 apprenticeship in Leadership or has equivalent experience
6. Holds or is willing to work towards accuracy checking dispensing assistants qualification (National Framework)
Desirable criteria
7. Practice Supervisor qualification
8. Other qualifications such as management or education & training qualifications
9. Leadership skills training
10. Qualified first aider
Experience
Essential criteria
11. Significant experience working in hospital pharmacy
12. Demonstrable experience supervising others
13. Demonstrable experience of managing staff /others
14. Experience in dealing with patients, healthcare professionals at all levels, the general public and challenging situations
Desirable criteria
15. Experience of Wellsky
16. Experience of pharmacy EPMA / Prescription Tracking systems
17. Experience in staff training
18. Experience of managing and/or leading a team
Knowledge
Essential criteria
19. Understanding of Health and Safety at work, manual handling and COSHH
20. Understanding of dispensing, stock control and supply systems and processes
21. Knowledge of pharmacy dispensing systems
22. Excellent IT knowledge covering a range of systems such as Microsoft Office.
23. Understanding of providing a service in line with cost effectiveness and working practices to reduce waste
Skills
Essential criteria
24. Excellent team player, and also ability to work individually
25. Good understanding of manual handling requirements
26. Good interpersonal skills, and patient focused
27. Ability to make decisions in the best interest of the service
28. Good attention to detail and a responsible attitude towards quality and accuracy
Other
Essential criteria
29. Flexible attitude to work in accordance with service needs