Cancer Pharmacy Technician Assistant

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an enthusiastic, highly motivated and proactive Pharmacy Assistant with excellent communication, organisational, and interpersonal skills to join the cancer pharmacy team at the Churchill.

This post would suit somebody with either a hospital pharmacy background or with community pharmacy experience wishing to make a change into the hospital environment, for which appropriate training will be provided. You must have successfully achieved the relevant units of pharmacy services skills NVQ level 2 (QCF) or an equivalent GPhC accredited training programme. Applications for part-time/flexible working are considered.

Did you know that there is an estimated 3 million people living with cancer in the UK, rising to 3.5 million by 2025, 4 million by 2030, and 5.3 million by 2040? On average, someone is diagnosed with cancer every 90 seconds in the UK.

However, it’s not all doom and gloom! Average survival is now estimated to be over 10 years from diagnosis (up from an average survival time of one year in the 1970s and six years in 2007).

Key roles include:

• Work in the reception area taking in prescriptions
• Delivery of high-quality pharmacy services for out-patients and day treatment patients
• Labelling and dispensing prescriptions
• Providing support and ordering medications for patients on oncology and haematology wards following suitable training
• Provide support to the Cancer Pharmacy Team
• Be aware of and be involved in customer service
• Patient counselling
• Working as part of a team
• Opportunity to work in both ward and dispensary area.

About you:
You will respond to enquiries and requests from staff, patients, and carers and ensure appropriate and accurate information is readily available, escalating questions and problems to other members of the pharmacy team when needed. You will be expected to form good working relationships with staff from all the different groups within the Cancer Services and work together as part of a team.

You should ideally have experience of working as a qualified Pharmacy Dispensing Assistant, using computer systems for dispensing and stock control, and have good communication skills. You should be well organised and able to use your own initiative.

Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is one of the largest NHS teaching trusts in the country. It provides a wide range of general and specialist clinical services and is a base for medical education, training, and research.

The Trust comprises four hospitals: the John Radcliffe Hospital, Churchill Hospital, and Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre in Headington, and the Horton General Hospital in Banbury.

Our values, standards, and behaviours define the quality of clinical care we offer and the professional relationships we make with our patients, colleagues, and the wider community. We call this Delivering Compassionate Excellence, and its focus is on our values of compassion, respect, learning, delivery, improvement, and excellence. These values put patients at the heart of what we do and underpin the quality healthcare we would like for ourselves or a member of our family.

Dispensary

• Provide daily support to the dispensary workforce.
• Use the pharmacy computer system to produce dispensing labels and to make stock issues, receipts, and transfers.
• Dispense inpatient, outpatient clinical trial, and controlled drug prescriptions according to dispensary procedures.
• Assist the Stock Management Team with unpacking deliveries and filling the automated dispensing system.
• Participate in conducting regular Controlled Drug stock checks alongside a Registered Technician.
• Be responsible for putting away dispensing stock including part packs and maintaining tidy storage areas.
• Participate in extemporaneous dispensing e.g., preparing creams, ointments, and liquid preparations.
• Maintain equipment used in the dispensing process.
• Participate in the training and induction of pre-registration students and ATOs.
• Participate in the audit and development of the dispensary service.
• Provide reception cover as per the Dispensary rota and answer the telephone, directing queries as appropriate.

Ward-based

• Be responsible for the supply and delivery of any medicines required during inpatient stay according to local procedures and guidance to reduce the number of missed doses.
• Assist in the transfer of medicines between wards and locate medicines that have been left behind when patients transfer wards.
• Deal with problems associated with the ordering of stock on behalf of the ward or refer where appropriate, liaising closely with the relevant pharmacy staff.
• Be involved in expiry date checking of ward stock.
• Work closely with the pharmacy top-up assistant in maintaining a well-controlled and appropriate medication and fluid stock holding.
• Provide support to the ward technician(s) and pharmacist(s) to ensure medicines management, including safe and secure storage of medicines, return of medicines into Local Funding, and facilitating near-patient dispensing.
• Return unused medicines from the ward(s) back to pharmacy.
• Ensure correct segregation and disposal of all types of waste such as cytotoxics both at ward level and in the dispensary.
• Advocate for good communication between ward staff, pharmacists, medicines management technicians, and the dispensary.
• Undertake extended roles at ward level according to local Standard Operating Procedures, following a period of supervised practice. This may include writing controlled drug (CD) orders in ward CD order books.
• Monitor and report any issues regarding the safe storage of drugs to the ward pharmacist and/or ward manager.
• Photocopy, file, and scan documents when necessary. Collect and disseminate documents received within pharmacy. Collect essential documentation, such as working copies, on behalf of the pharmacist to support the swift discharge of patients.
• Contact GP surgeries or community pharmacies as requested by other members of the pharmacy team to either provide or retrieve information relating to medicines management.

General role

• Provide training, including induction, to pharmacy support staff as required.
• Undertake in-house and/or external training appropriate for the role.
• Complete reports and audits as requested.
• Participate in a programme of work-based training, development, and appraisal.
• Ensure confidentiality is always maintained.
• Maintain a tidy and clean working environment.
• Participate in early and late duties, evening, weekend, and bank holiday working according to the departmental rotas.
• Perform any other duties as requested by the Lead Pharmacist, Ward Based Technician Manager, or Clinical Director of Pharmacy and Medicines Management.