A unique opportunity has arisen for an experienced pharmacy technician to join our established, friendly, and dynamic clinical pharmacy team at South London and the Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.

As part of the senior operational team this exciting new post will form part of a wider restructure of the pharmacy service where you will have responsibility for the delivery of high quality services to clozapine patients at SLaM. This post provides the opportunity to use your organisational and consultation skills to provide excellent patient care in clozapine clinics as part of the multidisciplinary team as well as developing leadership, education and training skills.

Main duties of the job

To manage and co-ordinate clozapine services to allocated borough(s)

To manage and maintain clozapine processes in the dispensary

To participate in the provision of pharmaceutical care initiatives to ensure the safe, appropriate and cost effective use of medicines

To assist in delivering the targets set out in the pharmacy Business Plan.

To work with the multidisciplinary team in providing an effective and efficient clozapine service to SLaM patients within the allocated borough(s)

To act as a practice supervisor in the training and education of pre-registration pharmacy technicians during their clozapine rotation.

To line manage and supervise senior pharmacy technicians allocated clozapine duties.

To supervise Pharmacy Technicians, Assistant Technical Officers and where appropriate, pre-registration pharmacists.

About us

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.

This post will be based at the Maudsley Hospital pharmacy, but the post holder will be required to support clozapine clinics in Lambeth and Southwark.

Job description

Job responsibilities

Co-ordinate and manage the routine dispensing and supply of clozapine for both in-patients and outpatients. This includes but is not limited to:

• Accessing the ZTAS database to check current blood status of patients.
• Accessing EPJs to obtain blood results for patients when urgent analysis is required and

entering this information on the ZTAS (Zaponex Treatment Access Service) database.

• Checking satisfactory blood results obtained before supplying clozapine to patient. This is a mandatory part of the product licence.
• Keeping accurate records of all clozapine dispensed against satisfactory blood results.
• Liaising closely with clinical pharmacists and Clozapine Clinic staff and alerting them if any potential problems arise either with blood sampling or clozapine supply
• Communicate changes to patient details with ZTAS
• Communicate with other sites when patients are transferred / discharged
• Ensure continuity of care when patients are discharged from inpatient wards to community settings.

To participate in the work of the Pharmacy Department to ensure the safe, efficient, and cost effective supply of medication to patients ensuring compliance with Health and Safety and Medicines Legislation

To participate in Medicines Management initiatives in the Trust.

To work as an Accredited Checking Technician and be able to check clinically screened prescriptions.

To be able to act independently in following department SOPs

To dispense medication accurately and be able to decide when it is necessary to refer to the Senior Clinical Pharmacists.

To participate in the provision of patient counselling to patients and their carers who collect their medication from the clozapine clinic

To support the clozapine clinic and other CMHT staff in issuing clozapine medication to patients attending for blood tests. This involves:

• organising medication supplies for clinics
• Ensuring prescriptions are valid and are available for use in the clinic.
• checking medication matches current prescription,
• undertaking side effect questionnaires (GASS) and upload onto EPJS
• Completing appropriate documentation relating to the clinic operation.
• Communicate with care-coordinators any issues relating to patient care

To be part of the trust clozapine forum / clinic steering group and attend meetings in order to support standardisation of practice across all boroughs.

Liaising closely with Clinical Pharmacists and/or Clozapine Clinic staff regarding new patients, patients discontinuing treatment, changes in frequency of routine blood sampling, abnormal blood results obtained and clozapine dosage changes.

To manage and maintain an up to date local database for clozapine patients. This includes relevant patient details, clozapine patient number, CMHT, frequency of blood tests and supply quantities and expiry date of prescription repeat prescription.

To support the department in developing, reviewing, updating and implementing standard operating procedures relating to both dispensary and clinic based clozapine activities for pharmacy staff and, where appropriate, CMHT staff.

To participate in the provision of Medicines Reconciliation and communication with GPs to ensure continuity of care of clozapine patients.

To be trained in the use of POCHI (Point of Care Haemotology) in clozapine clinics and assist when needed.

To support work carried out in CMHT settings relating to ordering and supplying of medicines.

To liaise with external service providers (e.g. polarspeed) relating to supplies of medicines to CMHTs

To provide teaching and support to nursing and non-nursing staff regarding good dispensing practice, medicines usage and storage both internally and externally.

To assist with the development of training packages for staff rotating in clozapine and to act as a practice supervisor for pre-registration pharmacists and technicians.

To undertake appraisals for nominated staff

To participate in the recruitment process for ATOs and Band 4 pharmacy technicians

To assist day to day organisation of staff in the dispensary and to facilitate efficient running of the service ensuring that procedures relating to good dispensary practice are followed.

To participate in research and audit undertaken in pharmacy and, where appropriate, design audits relating to clozapine.

To ensure that the principles of safe and secure handling of medicines are adopted and to take part in quality assurance systems for pharmaceutical services.

To attend and participate in departmental education and training meetings.

To maintain a Continuing Professional Development portfolio

To communicate clearly and sensitively about patient medication issues both internally and externally.

To participate in the dispensary cover rota. This includes taking in prescriptions and verify personal details take a current drug history from the patient or carer to identify any drug allergies, drug interactions or problems with the medication prescribed to give out patient medication to patients and counsel the patient on their medication to promote concordance. This will include the name of the medication, dosage, common side-effects and administration details including use of devices. In addition, resolve any queries or concerns a patient may have about their medications.

To undertake any other duties as may be reasonably requested by the Director of Pharmacy consistent with the responsibility of the post.

To take part in annual pharmacy stocktake

To participate in Saturday and Bank Holiday working, when required

In order to be successful in this role, you will need to be organised, motivated, have excellent communication and people skills as well as the ability to adapt quickly to new situations.

Person Specification

Education and Training

Essential

• NVQ Level 3 Pharmaceutical Sciences or a recognised equivalent
• Registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC), with mandatory CPD
• ACT (Accredited Checking Technician)
• HEE Pharmacy Medicines Optimisation accreditation (or working towards) or equivalent relevant experience

Desirable

• Practice Supervisor accreditation
• POCHI user accreditation / certificate
• Management / supervisory qualification / experience

Experience

Essential

• Practicing pharmacy technician with sufficient post qualification hospital experience
• Experience in Mental Health
• Medicines Reconciliation Experience
• Evidence of ability to work independently and proactively with limited supervision
• Experience working in clozapine clinics or in CMHT setting

Desirable

• Involvement in specialist projects and/or audit.
• WellSky (JAC) experience
• Management / supervisory experience

Knowledge

Essential

• Knowledge of hospital pharmacy systems
• Knowledge of Windows and Microsoft Office operating systems, software applications particularly use of spreadsheets, databases and computerised calendars.
• Basic working knowledge of clozapine both clinically and operationally

Desirable

• Knowledge and understanding of physical health monitoring requirements relating to clozapine

Employer details

Employer name

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Maudsley Hospital

Camberwell

SE5 8AZ

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