The closing date is 06 November 2025
Pharmacy Technician - Cancer Services
Ready to take your Pharmacy Technician career to the next level in Cancer Services? We're offering an exciting opportunity to join our expanding and modernising Cancer Pharmacy Team at Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust as a Specialist Medicines Optimisation Pharmacy Technician.
Main duties of the job
* Delivering high-quality pharmaceutical care to oncology and haematology patients in our Day Treatment Unit - The Meadows and Haematology inpatient ward.
* Collaborating with cancer pharmacists, PASU, Boots Pharmacy, and clinical teams to coordinate chemotherapy and supportive medicines.
* Supporting patients through counselling and discharge planning to improve medicines use and reduce errors.
* Leading on medicines reconciliation and assessing patients\' own drugs.
* Providing administrative support for private healthcare, including:
* Scheduling treatments and maintaining accurate cost records.
* Working with pharmacists to calculate quotes and ensure pricing is up to date.
* Liaising with the Private Healthcare team, Cancer Pharmacy Team, PASU, Boots Pharmacy, and the purchasing team.
* You\'ll also contribute to service improvement projects, audits, and training, and provide Accredited Checking Technician services in the dispensary.
Ensure pricing information and product list prices are regularly reviewed and updated to reflect current rates.
* Ensure effective communications with the Great Western Hospitals Private Healthcare team, Cancer Pharmacy Team, Pharmacy Aseptic Services Unit (PASU), Boots Pharmacy, and the purchasing team to support service delivery.
About us
Our STAR values - Service, Teamwork, Ambition and Respect - are a golden thread running through everything we do. These values serve as a guiding principle, driving us towards our vision of delivering great joined up services to our local community. Whether at home, in the community, or within the hospital, our goal is to empower individuals to lead independent and healthier lives.
Job responsibilities
* Independently deliver admission, supply and discharge services to nominated wards and clinics. Liaising directly with pharmacists, doctors and nursing staff over clinical issues as appropriate.
* Undertake drug histories for patients receiving their first systemic anti-cancer therapy (SACT) treatment on The Meadows.
* On admission, check that the medicines prescribed for each patient conform with information from the patient, Summary Care Record (SCR), General Practitioner (GP) letter and/or nursing home and take detailed medication histories.
* Assess whether any medicines brought in by the patient are fit for use and remove (with patients permission) any medicines not needed.
* Order all medication that the patient has not brought into hospital if required.
* Counsel patients to use their medication and provide written information as required.
* Prioritise and organise daily workload to ensure that all required tasks are completed within allocated timescale.
* Liaise with local pharmacies to ensure that continuing supply of medicines is provided in compliance aids at discharge.
* Work alongside the Cancer Pharmacy Team and Boots Pharmacy to facilitate timely processing of To-Take-Away (TTAs) and supportive medications as part of the SACT prescription.
* Work alongside the discharge team pharmacist to facilitate timely processing of TTAs and patient discharge.
* Co-ordinate discharge team and allocate work as required, liaising with Dispensary Team Leader to ensure discharge prescriptions are managed appropriately.
* Provide administrative support for private healthcare, including treatment scheduling and maintaining accurate cost records.
* Work with pharmacists to calculate quotes for private healthcare treatments.
* Ensure pricing information and product list prices are regularly reviewed and updated to reflect current rates.
* Ensure effective communications with the Great Western Hospitals Private Healthcare team, Cancer Pharmacy Team, Pharmacy Aseptic Services Unit (PASU), Boots Pharmacy, and the purchasing team to support service delivery.
Person Specification
Education, Qualifications and Training
* Professional registration as a Pharmacy Technician with the General Pharmaceutical Council
* Accredited Checking Technician qualification or be eligible (1 year post qualification) and willing to work towards accreditation which will take up to a year to complete
* NVQ assessor to A1 standard or equivalent or able to work towards and willing to undertake training which will take up to 18 months to complete
Experience
* Experience as a hospital Pharmacy Technician, or supervisory experience within a community Pharmacy
* Recent practical experience in a busy Pharmacy environment
* Experience of training individuals
* Experience of supervising, directing, organising and monitoring performance in a high-pressured environment
Knowledge and Skills
* Good and broad understanding of current hospital pharmacy practice
* Good understanding of medicines optimisation issues and the implications for Pharmacy services
* Good knowledge of therapeutic drug use in clinical situations gained by ongoing education and continuous professional development
* Good knowledge of the legal requirements (Law and Ethics) for dispensing and supplying medicines, including Controlled Drugs
* Good organisational and time management skills. Able to prioritise tasks and respond to urgent demands by diverting resources whilst managing own workload.
* Excellent IT skills including Word, Outlook, internet, intranet and email
* Able to make sound judgments where there are a range of options, in a non-judgemental and objective way
* Self-motivated with ability to work flexibly whilst also supervising, motivating, inspiring and directing the team
* Communicates clearly with patients and clinical teams, showing sensitivity and strong interpersonal skills.
* Knowledge and clear understanding of Good Distribution Practice (EU GDP 2013/C 343/01), and other relevant regulations, guidance and quality standards
* Knowledge of the hospital pharmacy computer systems (CMM, Careflow)
* Regular formal refresher training on EU GDP at least annually if no changes in legislation have occurred
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.
Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
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