Pharmacy Technicians play an important role within General Practice and complement the work of Clinical Pharmacists through utilisation of their technical skillset. Their deployment within primary care settings allows the application of their acquired pharmaceutical knowledge in tasks such as audits, discharge management, prescription issuing, and where appropriate, informing patients and other members of the PCN workforce. Work is often under the direction of Clinical Pharmacists, and this benefit is realised through the creation of a PCN pharmacy team.
Meet our pharmacy technician – working alongside GPs to meet patients’ healthcare needs
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Training/Development
- Pharmacy technicians undertake a level 3 course which can be through a fully funded apprenticeship programme before they can register with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)
- The new initial education and training standards for pre-registration trainee pharmacy technicians is being tested with placements in General Practice, through the Pharmacy Integration Fund (PhIF).
Pre-requisites
- Registered with the GPhC.
| Key roles and responsibilities | Education and training requirements |
Recommended minimum supervision |
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Registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)
Enrolled in or qualified from an approved training programme that meets the National Competency Framework for Primary Care Pharmacy Techniciansor, for example, Primary care pharmacy education pathway (PCPEP) |
Supervision can be carried out monthly by a pharmacist or GP |
Benefits to patients
- Help to increase patient action to support and advise on taking medicines and medicines optimisation.
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Work in partnership with patients to ensure they use their medicines effectively.
- Provide specialist expertise, where able to demonstrate competence, to address both the public health and social care needs of patients, including lifestyle advice and service information.
Benefits to PCN’s
- Supervise practice reception teams in sorting and streaming general prescription requests, so as to allow GPs and clinical pharmacists to review the more clinically complex requests.
- Work with the PCN multi-disciplinary team to ensure efficient medicines optimisation, including implementing efficient ordering and return processes and reducing wastage.
- Provide training and support on the legal, safe and secure handling of medicines, including the implementation of the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS).
Benefits to the wider NHS
- Develop relationships with other pharmacy technicians, pharmacists and members of the multi-disciplinary team to support integration of the pharmacy team across health and social care including primary care, community pharmacy, secondary care and mental health.
- Help in tackling local health inequalities.
- Support initiatives for antimicrobial stewardship to reduce inappropriate antibiotic prescribing.