Pharmacy Technician

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Benefits of the Pharmacy Technician role

The role of a Pharmacy Technician is broad, and duties can vary depending on where you work. A Pharmacy Technician working in General Practice will have a positive effect on the management of medicines for both the patients and the practice, they can significantly reduce day-to-day workload for GPs.

Pharmacy Technicians effectively support GPs and other clinicians with prescribing, following local and national guidelines, clinical reviews, safety alerts and medication queries. They empower patients to be more involved with their medication management, and ensure that they are taking the right medication, in the right way, and that they’re up to date with health reviews and important blood monitoring. They contribute to processes that help to maximise benefit and minimise risk to patients from their medicines and ensure the smooth transition.

Role duties

  • Repeat Prescription management
  • Medicines Reconciliation
  • Compliance reviews
  • Counselling patients about their medication
  • Medication switching
  • Respond to Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) safety alerts
  • Medication queries
  • Drug monitoring
  • Simple medication reviews
  • Vaccination programmes

Qualification requirements

To become a Pharmacy Technician, you must be working in a pharmacy environment for 2 years whilst completing a General Pharmaceutical council (GPhC) recognised course. This is available as a BTEC Level 3 apprenticeship. Once qualified, you will register with the GPhC to practice as a Pharmacy Technician.

In general practice there are very subtle differences between Pharmacy Technicians and Pharmacists but essentially a Pharmacy Technician cannot become an independent prescriber and as such cannot undertake Structured Medication Reviews (SMRs).

Much of what a Pharmacy Technician can do will depend on their own competencies and experience. Many practices have specific protocols in place for certain reviews that a Pharmacy Technician can undertake. For example, contraception/pill reviews, hypothyroidism reviews and other long term condition medication reviews. Some Pharmacy Technicians are trained similarly to Health care assistants so that they can do basic observations; Blood pressure, Respiratory rate, Oxygen saturations and pulse rate and perform phlebotomy This can enable them to run warfarin clinics and monitor post discharge and high-risk medications.

It is a requirement for all ARRs funded Pharmacy roles to undertake additional training which is currently provided by the Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education (CPPE). The Primary Care Pharmacy Education Pathway (PCPEP) runs for 15 months for Pharmacy Technicians and provides the necessary knowledge, skills, and experience to work in various patient-facing roles in primary care networks as part of a multidisciplinary tea