Senior Pharmacy Assistant

This is a great opportunity to develop your pharmacy career and make a real difference to the lives of those who use our service.

Our patients are at the heart of everything we do. We are dedicated to delivering the best quality and safest care to local communities and need dedicated and skilled people to help us achieve this.

The majority of your time will be spent within the aseptic unit preparing chemotherapy and monoclonal therapy for the Trusts cancer patients.

Time will also be spent supporting the dispensary team and distribution team with the supply of medicine to wards and departments, inpatients and outpatients.

This post will support your career and skills development. All aseptic training will be given in house if you have no previous experience.

You will be responsible for the preparation and supply of patient intravenous cancer treatments within the Trust. The treatments will be aseptically prepared in isolators using aseptic technique and Good Manufacturing Practice.

All supportive oral medication will also be supplied by yourself.

You will also be expected to use your dispensing skills to help in dispensary and ward distribution. If you already hold an NVQ level 2 (or equivalent), this will allow you to use the skills you acquired as part of your qualification.

Please refer to the detailed job description for key tasks.

BeKnown at West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust. By us. By our patients. By our community

We are a busy, friendly, rural NHS Trust providing high-quality care and compassion to more than a quarter of a million people across west Suffolk. We care for, treat and support people in hospital, at home and in various community settings.

The West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds provides acute and secondary care services (emergency department, maternity and neonatal services, day surgery unit, eye treatment centre, Macmillan unit and children's ward). It has 500+ beds and is a partner teaching hospital of the University of Cambridge.

Adult and paediatric community services, provided in collaboration with West Suffolk Alliance partners, include a range of nursing, therapy, specialist, and ongoing temporary care and rehabilitation, some at our Newmarket Community Hospital.

We do our utmost to achieve outstanding clinical outcomes for patients and our values of fairness, inclusivity, respect, safety and team work guide how we work and behave as a team.

With nearly 5,000 staff, from all over the world, we strive to make our organisation a great place to work. Whatever your role or ambition, we want to help you be the best you can be.

We promote a diverse and inclusive community where everyones voice counts and you can #BeKnown for whoever you are.

Join us. What will you #BeKnown for?

Please see job description for full details.

**Job summary**:
To assist in the provision of a high quality, patient focused aseptic service. To ensure that all products are aseptically prepared following standard operating procedures (SOPs), Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP), and guidelines detailed in the ‘Rules and Guidance for Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Distributors and Quality Assurance of Aseptic Preparation Services.

**Job responsibilities**:
Key Tasks

Production

a) To be responsible for the ‘start of day’ and ‘end of day’ procedures, and the reading and recording of relevant HEPA filter and pressure gauges.

b) Using aseptic technique and GMP, accurately prepare and dispense preparations including cytotoxic drugs, monoclonal antibodies, and preparations for ectopic and ocular use.

c) To participate in the dispensing of parenteral nutrition (PN) and Methotrexate, using approved protocols and guidelines.

d) To complete all booking out and filing of parenteral nutrition (PN), chemotherapy and trial paperwork.

e) To ensure an adequate supply of chemotherapy and supportive drug stock levels. To supervise and assist with the rotational movement of this stock.

f) To top up supplies of equipment, materials, and consumables used within the department.

g) To supervise the monitoring process within the unit, using settle plates and contact plates, and labelling these plates appropriately.

h) To supervise and assist with cleaning the unit according to procedure, and to supervise and train other staff in these procedures. To ensure that cleaning materials are in stock at all times.

i) To supervise and assist with the dedicated garment collection for Microclean®.

j) To be responsible for placing orders using SupplyChain and Powergate computer programmes.

k) To participate in the dispensing of prescribed oral chemotherapy and supportive medication.

l) To assist the Principal Pharmacy Technician - Aseptic Services and Senior Pharmacy Technician - Aseptic Services in the co-ordination of the activities of other assistant and student technicians within the aseptic unit.

m) To supply emergency extravasation boxes to wards and departments, and to ensure that they are kept