Senior Pharmacy Technician

Job summary

A great opportunity has arisen to join the Pharmacy Team at Barts Health as our Pharmacy Medicines Purchasing for Safety Lead, based at The Royal London Hospital with cross-site working. This role is central to ensuring safe, compliant and resilient medicines procurement across the Trust.

You will lead on procurement governance, medicine shortages management, unlicensed medicines oversight, and safety-focused contract validation, working closely with senior pharmacy leaders and multidisciplinary teams.

Key responsibilities include:

• Leading safe, compliant procurement processes and supplier oversight
• Managing Trust-wide medicine shortages and switch-back planning
• Coordinating unlicensed medicines governance, audits and stock reviews
• Conducting safety assessments, packaging checks and contract validation
• Producing KPIs, dashboards and audit reports for governance forums
• Supporting incident investigations, policy development and digital optimisation
• We are looking for an enthusiastic, proactive pharmacy technician with excellent communication skills, strong attention to detail and a passion for patient safety.
• For more information, please contact: [email protected] or [email protected]

Main duties of the job

o To provide expert leadership and governance oversight of procurement activities within the pharmacy department, ensuring compliance with regulatory standards, safeguarding patient safety, and supporting risk management.o To oversee the supply chain, including medicine shortages, unlicensed medicines, supplier management, stock control, and contract management, ensuring continuity of supply and optimal stock utilization.o To lead on governance, safety assessments, audit processes, and the management of medicine shortages and unlicensed medicines, including risk-based de-escalation and safe switch-back planning.

About us

Barts Health is one of the largest NHS trusts in the country, and one of Britain's leading healthcare providers.

Our vision is to be a high-performing group of NHS hospitals, renowned for excellence and innovation, and providing safe and compassionate care to our patients in east London and beyond. That means being a provider of excellent patient safety, known for delivering consistently high standards of harm-free care and always caring for patients in the right place at the right time. It also means being an outstanding place to work, in which our WeCare values and behaviours are visible to all and guide us in how we work together.

We strive to live by our WeCare values and are committed to promoting inclusion, where every staff member has a sense of belonging. We value our differences and fully advocate, cultivate and support an inclusive working environment.

Job responsibilities

We are dedicated to being an outstanding place to work and will work with you to get the best experience. We know flexible working is not a one size fits all and will mean something different to everyone. We are inclusive, so if you are interested in flexible working, please speak to the recruiting manager.

The full job description provides an overview of the key tasks and responsibilities of the role, and the person specification outlines the qualifications, skills, experience, and knowledge required. For both documents, please view the attachment/s below.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential

• BTEC level 3 Diploma in Principles and practice for pharmacy technicians or equivalent (2)
• Registration as a Pharmacy Technician with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)
• Accuracy Checking Pharmacy Technician (ACPT) qualification ILM3 or equivalent leadership / management qualification

Desirable

• Practice Supervisor Train the trainer or equivalent qualification

Experience

Essential

• Significant, recent experience in direct patient-facing clinical pharmacy role
• Demonstrate experience of delivering safety initiatives and improved patient outcomes
• Evidence of basic teaching and tutoring in a hospital setting through training others e.g. pre-registration pharmacy technicians
• Experience of Medication Safety and governance
• Experience with organising and chairing meetings
• Use of Datix incident reporting system or equivalent
• Successful experience of managing & leading change projects
• Lead on in service development action plans
• Writing and presenting complex reports
• Experience in managing incident investigations
• Experience of working with senior healthcare professionals outside of Pharmacy
• Experience of leading or supervising practice research or audit
• Experience of identifying and managing risk
• Experience of protocol/guideline development
• Track record of successful team working

Desirable

• Experience using pharmacy stock management systems (CMM)
• Evidence of successful design and implementation of new supply processes.
• Experience of successfully managing staff, performing appraisals and giving feedback
• Management of Medicine Shortages

Knowledge

Essential

• Understanding of GPhC Revalidation requirements
• Knowledge of medicines management systems at the ward level
• Up to date knowledge of legislation relevant to pharmacy practice, e.g. controlled drugs, Health and Safety at Work
• Understanding of stock control systems
• An awareness of current national standards, guidelines and service delivery issues relevant to area of practice
• Maintains a broad level of pharmacy practice
• Understanding of stock control systems
• Knowledge of Safe and Secure Handling of Medicines requirements
• Understanding of the importance of adherence to SOPs and legislation
• Demonstrates awareness of and commitment to the medication safety and clinical governance agenda
• Understands national and local priorities
• Knowledge of regulations and legislation relevant to area of practice
• Demonstrates a good understanding of patient safety initiative

Desirable

• Demonstrated knowledge of Quality systems
• Knowledge of interface issues relevant to different patient groups
• Knowledge of Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF)

Skills

Essential

• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Effective verbal and written communication skills
• Be able to influence senior medical staff, the multidisciplinary team and management teams
• Able to motivate self and others
• Be able to implement and manage change
• Able to complete documentation accurately with attention to detail
• Able to accurately follow written procedures under pressure Demonstrates numeracy skills and ability to perform accurate, complex calculations

Other

Essential

• Leads by example, promoting the Bart's health values
• Able to push heavy trolleys
• Able to lift heavy loads frequently of up to 15kg

Desirable

• Membership of the Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK (APTUK)