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East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust

About
We are one of the largest hospital trusts in England, with five hospitals and community clinics serving a local population of around 800,000 people.
We also provide some specialist services for a wider population, including renal services in Medway and Maidstone and a cardiac service for all of Kent based at William Harvey Hospital, Ashford.
Our vision is 'great healthcare from great people'. Everything we do is guided by our vision and values.
We have a national and international reputation for delivering high quality specialist care, particularly in cancer, kidney disease, stroke and vascular services.
We value and pursue excellence in research and innovation. Our Trust has been ranked first in Kent for clinical research studies, as well as consistently recruiting high numbers of patients into research trials.
As a teaching Trust we play a vital role in the education and training of doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals, working closely with local universities and Kings College University in London.
We’re on an exciting journey of transformation, with a new Medical School at the centre of our community, a focus on research, clinical leadership and making our trust a rewarding and friendly place to work, there’s never been a better time to join us.
Contact
- Address
- Trust Headquarters
- Kent and Canterbury Hospital
- Ethelbert Road
- Canterbury
- Kent
- CT1 3NG
- Contact Number
- 01227 766877
Lead Pharmacy Technician for Dispensary Services (Operations)
Accepting applications until: 08-Jun-2025 23:59
Vacancy status: Open
Accepting applications until: 08-Jun-2025 23:59
Key details
Location
- Gwefan
- Trustwide
- Cyfeiriad
- Pharmacy Department
- Tref
- Canterbury
- Cod post
- CT1 3NG
- Major / Minor Region
- Kent
Contract type & working pattern
- Contract
- Permanent
- Oriau
- Full time
- Flexible working
Salary
- Cyflog
- £46,148 - £52,809 per annum
- Cyfnod cyflog
- Yearly
- Gradd
- (NHS AfC: Band 7)
Specialty
- Prif leoliad
- Pharmacy
Trosolwg o'r swydd
Join the team that was a finalist in the 2023 APTUK Pharmacy Technician Team of the Year!
At East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust (EKHUFT), we pride ourselves on progression and innovation. As one of the first Trusts to embrace accuracy checking for Senior Pharmacy Assistants, we're committed to evolving pharmacy services for the benefit of our patients and staff. We are now looking for a Lead Pharmacy Technician for Dispensary Services to join our dynamic team, leading our three dispensaries and the dispensary managers, ensuring an efficient and seamless supply of medicines across the whole Trust. This role is essential in shaping the future of pharmacy operations within EKHUFT.
Advert
The Lead Pharmacy Technician for Dispensary Services will be a key member of our Operational Team, responsible for leading the delivery of pharmacy services across three dispensaries and supporting the operational service we provide to our patients and staff. As a leader, you will motivate and inspire staff, ensuring a smooth workflow, compliance with regulations, and top-tier patient care.
Key Responsibilities:
- Lead and manage the Dispensary Operational Team, overseeing the three dispensaries, home delivery services, and dispensary managers.
- Ensure the efficient and safe delivery of pharmacy services within the three dispensaries, including a centralised weekend dispensing service
- Collaborate with the other operation teams within pharmacy to including the aseptic dispensing unit, homecare service and a centralised stores and distribution service, distributing over 40,000 items weekly.
- Work closely with the administrative and training teams to support continuous improvement, staff development, and education.
- Ensure compliance with relevant pharmacy laws and regulations, contributing to the safety, accuracy, and effectiveness of the dispensary's operations.
- Lead the team in continuous service improvement initiatives, identifying and implementing strategies to enhance the quality and efficiency of our dispensary services.
Gweithio i'n sefydliad
We are one of the largest hospital trusts in England, with five hospitals and community clinics serving a local population of around 800,000 people. Our vision is 'great healthcare from great people'. Everything we do is guided by our values: 'People feel cared for, safe, respected and confident that we are making a difference’. We have a new way of working at East Kent Hospitals, called 'We care'. It's about empowering frontline staff to lead improvements day-to-day. We're looking for compassionate people to be part of our improvement journey for the patients, families and carers we care for every day.
Swydd-ddisgrifiad a phrif gyfrifoldebau manwl
Key Result Areas
· To lead and oversee the Dispensary Services across all sites, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, William Harvey and Kent and Canterbury hospital.
· To develop, implement and maintain a comprehensive set of performance indicators for dispensary services. To use these indicators to develop and improve service delivery.
· To implement service changes and ensure the timely and successful delivery of objectives by the whole team.
· To ensure supply of all medicines in an appropriate manner, with due regard to Good Dispensing Practice and agreed policies and procedures to inpatients, outpatients, ward and departments and outside units.
· Dispensary Service Standards and KPIs are designed, described, monitored and met with action plans generated as required
· To understand legislation and professional guidance to a level which allows the postholder to know when it is acceptable and appropriate for themselves or their staff to deviate from standard operating procedures. To be able to take responsibility for contentious decisions.
· To assist in the development of plans for departmental Business Continuity, flu pandemic, internal disasters and major incidents.
· To ensure operational dispensary services are patient focussed and to create a culture of customer care.
· To directly line manage the dispensary managers.
· To be involved in maintenance of IT systems in dispensary services, i.e automated dispensing, dispensary tracking and other databases or IT solutions.
· To Development, Review and implement all Trust wide Dispensary SOPs
· Participation in the local and national reviews of pharmacy outcomes
Workforce Development
· To ensure that there is an appropriate and well-functioning management structure within the dispensary.
· To consider opportunities for skill-mixing or changes in configuration to overcome recruitment difficulties or to improve the efficiency of the area.
· To organise the pharmacy service for appropriate sites at weekends and bank holidays ensuring appropriate rostering, training and induction, remuneration, service review and development.
· To support a quality induction programme for all dispensary pharmacy staff which includes regular evaluation of effectiveness.
· To lead on the education and training for all dispensary based pharmacy technicians and pharmacy assistants working within the dispensary service ensuring that all of these staff are competent to provide the roles with the Trust.
· To identify future development needs or changes nationally that will impact dispensary services and ensure the department is able to meet those needs / strategies.
· To oversee on recruitment for all dispensary teams by being responsible for ensuring a robust recruitment process of team members that adheres to Trust policies including review of roles / responsibilities, preparing / agreeing adverts, short listing, chairing interview panels and selecting team members.
· To work with the Education, Training, Learning and Development Team to develop and oversee band 4 to band 5 progression programmes.
· To ensure e-rostering is robust with dispensary service teams and rostering time frames are met.
· Job plans for dispensary service staff are fair and reviewed
· To act as a role model, supervisor and mentor for pharmacy assistants, pharmacy technicians, trainee pharmacists, and pre-registration trainee pharmacy technicians and other members of pharmacy staff. This will include education and practice supervision.
· To take responsibility for own personal CPD by participating in education and training programmes to improve competence and acquire new skills to benefit development of the service.
· To work with the dispensary managers to develop a training plan that reflects and addresses staff needs which are identified by governance processes.
· To ensure that all staff in the operational staff dispensary team are adequately supervised and directed in their acts and duties, which must be carried out in accordance with agreed policies and procedures.
· To assist as and when necessary in the in-service education and training of staff within the pharmacy and in the Trusts as a whole.
· To ensure that all staff have their training needs met within the team and that the departmental Education and Training strategy is applied.
· To ensure that HR policies are followed and that all staff are trained appropriately for the management and supervision of others.
Governance and Risk
· To be responsible for ensuring site specific adherence to “responsible pharmacist” arrangements on our registered site in order to ensure compliance with General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) Legislation.
· To receive inspections from GPhC inspectors and ensure reports are acted upon and necessary improvements made.
· To ensure the service complies with all mandatory and statutory legislation and to ensure this is evidenced, documented and reported.
· Contribute and lead on investigation of complaints within area of responsibility and provide advice of any appropriate remedial action that may be required.
· To ensure that incidents are reported, recorded, investigated, analysed and appropriate action taken and/or proposed.
· Lead on investigation into medicine related incidents as required.
· To escalate any risks related to the delivery of the dispensary Service to Pharmacy Performance Review Meeting
· To keep the Trust Risk Register updated to meet actions of any owned / delegated risks.
Financial
· Participate in preparing business cases for the speciality / Care Group when they involve dispensary services.
· Working closely with the Medicines Value Team to ensure Trust Medicines Value agenda is met.
· Support work to enable the Trust to meet its CQUIN Targets.
· Assist the Chief Pharmacy Technician in managing the Operations Service budget.
· Authorise and verify all KTAKEMs for dispensary, Trustwide stores and Ward Distribution Services. Ensure all investigations are completed and high-risk cost stock figures amended where needed.
· To be responsible for ensuring sales from registered premises comply with GPhC legislation.
· To assist identification of annual contributions towards Cost Improvement Programme or other efficiency or savings programmes. To implement changes to deliver savings.
· To ensure the collection of all appropriate income for the area.
Leadership and Management
· Provide strong leadership and management for dispensary Services to ensuring that responsibilities and decision making are delegated appropriately, that services are managed effectively and that all staff are aware of their roles and responsibilities and deliver effectively.
· To support processes in other sections by undertaking formal investigations (such as HR) or providing informal advice based on own knowledge and experiences.
· Undertake coaching of staff to improve performance.
· To be responsible for the appropriate management of the whole specialist team (directly or indirectly), including delivery of annual appraisal, management of poor performance, managing sickness and absence, ensuring staff are treated equitably.
· Develop and implement systems to monitor performance of line managers and teams to ensure that all staff / teams are managed effectively, are motivated and perform their roles and responsibilities to a high standard.
· Undertake and manage formal Trust HR policies e.g. disciplinary, sickness, grievance etc.
· To appropriately manage difficult and ambiguous problems.
· Participate in regional and national organisations and groups
Other/ General
· To undertake any other appropriate duties as may be requested by the Director of Pharmacy / Chief Pharmacy Technician
· To maintain a commitment to self- development and undertake further training as identified in the appraisal and performance management.
· To take part in weekend, bank holiday and late duty services. Daily hours are adjusted to provide for an average of 37.5 hours per week.
Staff and patients from across East Kent Hospitals are the feature of the biggest NHS recruitment drive in its 70 year history. https://www.ekhuft.nhs.uk/patients-and-visitors/work-here/
Filmed in William Harvey and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother hospitals, the ‘We are the NHS’ campaign highlights the extraordinary work that staff across EKHUFT do every single day. As one of the largest hospital trusts in England, with five hospitals and community clinics serving a population of over one million people, EKHUFT was perfectly placed to demonstrate the care, cutting-edge treatments, research, innovations and life-saving operations that the campaign needed.
There are lots of great opportunities at East Kent Hospitals, where staff are caring and put patients first, innovation flourishes and you can develop your career. We’re on an exciting journey of transformation. With a new Medical School at the centre of our community, a focus on research, clinical leadership and making our trust a rewarding and friendly place to work,
there’s never been a better time to join us. To find out more about east Kent visit our website at. The Trust fully supports the SAS Doctors Charter and is committed to their development through its CPD Framework.
We’ll close this job advert once we’ve received sufficient applications which may be before the closing date so please apply as soon as possible. We only accept online applications. If you have any difficulty with this please contact our Resourcing Team on 01227 866450 who are happy to help.
We have a relocation policy for eligible candidates, parking available at Trust sites but we encourage other options, like car sharing or public transport.
The Trust is committed to supporting flexible working to fulfil our pledge as part of The Trust’s People Strategy to help staff to achieve a healthy work/life balance. Please speak with your Recruiting Manager for further information on how this can be managed alongside department expectations and requirements.
The ability to converse easily and provide advice in accurate spoken English is essential for all customer facing roles.
Most positions require a Disclosure and Barring check and will be exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. Posts working regularly or unsupervised with children or vulnerable adults require an enhanced check.
Applicants for eligible roles requiring Tier 2 sponsorship must meet UK Visas and Immigration eligibility criteria.
We operate a no-smoking policy on all our sites and grounds.
You can search for and apply for roles directly on our website.
If you are applying via NHS Jobs your application will be sent to our recruitment system TRAC. All subsequent information will be generated from TRAC so you won’t be able to see the progress of your application or receive messages through NHS Jobs and we won’t be able to respond to e-mails sent to us via the NHS Jobs website. By applying for this post you are agreeing to us transferring your application and details to our system. If you are offered a job information will also be transferred into the NHS Electronic Staff Records. Good luck with your application, we’ll contact you via email so please check your junk/spam folders.
Applicant requirements
Person specification
Qualifications
Meini prawf hanfodol
- Registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) as a Pharmacy Technician
- Accuracy checking qualification or equivalent
- Practice Supervisor or Educational Supervisor qualification or equivalent
Skills
Meini prawf hanfodol
- Experience of leading change management
- Experience of managing a team of staff
- Equal opportunities trained for recruitment of staff Training in management and HR related policies, e.g. managing absence, appraisal.
Meini prawf dymunol
- Experience of involving patients and/or customers in service developments
Personal attributes
Meini prawf hanfodol
- Effective negotiating skills
- Effective decision making skills
Other requirements
Meini prawf hanfodol
- Experience of conducting service audits and the use of performance indicators
Further details / informal visits contact
- Enw
- Sue Jones
- Teitl y swydd
- Deputy Chief Pharmacy Technician
- Cyfeiriad ebost
- [email protected]
- Rhif ffôn
- 01227868711
- Gwybodaeth i gefnogi eich cais
07785387202
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