A big part of my job is helping the practice pharmacist to make sure patients’ medicines are safe and effective. I help to make sure patients who take medicines for a long time have their health checked regularly and I remind them when they need to come in for a check-up. If they need to change their medicine, I help with that. I also make sure that any advice or instructions from hospitals or clinics are followed. I use policies and procedures which are rules that help me do things the right way. Using computer searches lets me quickly find the information we need to help people safely. I also check blood tests for people who take medicines that need extra care like those for blood thinning or certain medicines which need support from the hospital and the GP surgery together. This helps make sure the patients are safe to continue their medication before the prescription is signed and sent to the pharmacy. If anything looks wrong, I tell the pharmacist.
I like my job because I learn new things every day. I learn about different medicines, how they work, how to use them safely and when people need blood tests. I also enjoy working with a friendly and well organised pharmacy team who help me grow and learn even more.
I want to keep learning so I can become a Clinical Pharmacy Technician. This would mean taking on more responsibility in the GP practice and getting better at helping people use their medicines safely and in the best way.
I have worked in both community pharmacies and hospital pharmacies which meant I was well prepared for a job in a GP practice. I once worked as a temporary prescribing support technician and liked it so much that I applied for a full time job at Ashgrove Surgery over five years ago. I’m still here and really enjoy it. When I started, Pharmacy Technicians in GP practices were quite new and not very common. It has been exciting to grow in this job and learn along with the pharmacists and GPs.
A person in this job needs to talk clearly and kindly to both patients and other staff. They should be organised, careful and responsible. They need to be able to work well with a team of different health professionals but also be confident working on their own in a GP practice. They should care about health and wellbeing, enjoy learning new things and have a positive attitude when helping patients.