Role Profiles for GP Pharmacists and Pharmacy Techs Compared
If you have worked in general practice as a pharmacy professional for more than a year, you will be aware that the IIF indicators under the Network DES were slashed in March 2023. The new GP contract for 2024/25 reduced them even further. Pharmacy professionals can therefore spend more time helping practices achieve their objectives under QOF as well as serving patients.
One challenge that arises from this is that practice managers often do not know the differences in the capabilities of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. You may therefore find yourself having to explain to practice managers the differences between the roles. Wouldn’t it be simple if we had a simple reference tool that we could just hand over to the practice managers as a reference point?
Thankfully, the brains at CPPE thought of this challenge ages ago. If you have undertaken the Primary Care Pharmacy Education Pathway (PCPEP), or know someone who has, you will remember that the training pathway requires learners to complete a learning needs analysis (LNA) document at the beginning of the pathway. This is used to guide your development and training from a practice perspective.
The document follows the principles of the RPS Core Advanced Curriculum in that it recognises that pharmacy professionals will develop in their professional practice from Entry Level, to Intermediate and eventually Advanced Practice. It also recognises the differences in the training and capabilities of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. We can summarise the principles in the document in the following graphic:
With this is mind, we have looked at the LNA document used between 2021 and July 2023 and compared the suggested roles for pharmacists with those for pharmacy technicians. In this post we are looking at professionals whose roles are based mainly in the GP surgery. We shall compare profiles for those who work mainly in care homes in a separate post. If we pull together the role profiles, we get the following charts. We have also provided a handy download link for a cleaner PDF version if you’re interested in taking this and adapting it for your practice.
Entry Level Practice
| Entry level | Pharmacist | Pharm Tech |
| Developing policies and effective processes for medicines governance including controlled drugs* | Yes | No |
| Implementing policies and effective processes for medicines governance including controlled drugs | Yes | Yes |
| Developing policies and effective processes for repeat prescribing and repeat dispensing* | Yes | No |
| Implementing policies and effective processes for repeat prescribing and repeat dispensing | Yes | Yes |
| Developing effective systems for monitoring high-risk medicines* | Yes | No |
| Ensuring allergy information is accurate and correctly documented, and that the information is shared with the wider multidisciplinary team including community pharmacy | Yes | Yes |
| Ensuring effective antimicrobial stewardship* | Yes | No |
| Identifying missing information, discrepancies, and errors on repeat prescription requests and resolving them according to local policies and procedures | Yes | Yes |
| Ensuring medicines policies and procedures meet the requirements of Care Quality Commission (CQC)* | Yes | No |
| Monitoring high-risk medicines according to local systems and processes | Yes | Yes |
| Integration of the practice with local health and social care teams including hospitals and care homes* | Yes | No |
| Completing audits and reviews of the use of medicines according to local policies and procedures | Yes | Yes |
| Ensuring effective medicines reconciliation at transfer of care* | Yes | No |
| Using software tools to monitor and improve prescribing* | Yes | No |
| Using software tools to monitor prescribing | Yes | Yes |
| Participation in national and local Quality, Innovation Productivity and Prevention (QIPP) projects* | Yes | No |
| Involvement in national and local Quality, Innovation Productivity and Prevention (QIPP) projects | Yes | Yes |
| Dealing with medication queries from patients, staff, and other parts of the health and social care services according to local policies and procedures | Yes | Yes |
| Identifying topics for local quality improvement projects and participating in the chosen projects* | Yes | No |
| Completing effective medicines reconciliation at transfer of care and identifying any changes required | Yes | Yes |
| Facilitating education and training for staff and patients on medicines-related topics* | Yes | Yes |
| Dealing with medicines-related queries from patients and colleagues* | Yes | No |
| Using software tools to prioritise patients for medication review* | Yes | No |
| Performing medication reviews for ambulant and housebound patients, and care home residents* | Yes | No |
| Delivering person-centred consultations about medicines encouraging shared decision making* | Yes | No |
| Performing NHS health checks* | Yes | No |
| Caring for individuals with one or more long-term conditions (LTCs)* | Yes | No |
| Providing ongoing care for specific conditions (eg, eczema, psoriasis, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS))* | Yes | No |
| Managing musculoskeletal pain (eg, osteoarthritis)* | Yes | No |
| Resolving queries, errors and omissions from medicines reconciliation at transfer of care* | Yes | No |
Intermediate Level Practice
| Intermediate level | Pharmacist | Pharm Tech |
| Caring for a range of clinical conditions including atrial fibrillation (AF), coronary heart disease (CHD), heart failure (HF), peripheral vascular disease (PVD), asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), diabetes, chronic kidney disease, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis, stable depression and anxiety | Yes | No |
| Working to ensure compliance with CQC standards for managing medicines within the practice | Yes | Yes |
| Establish a programme of regular medication reviews for targeted patients* | Yes | No |
| Educating other members of staff about the policies and procedures for medicines governance, dealing with medication queries, repeat prescribing or repeat dispensing | Yes | Yes |
| Developing individualised treatment plans for patients taking multiple medicines, particularly those at risk of hospital admission* | Yes | No |
| Identifying topics for local quality improvement projects and participating in the chosen projects | Yes | Yes |
| Promoting self-management for patients with one or more long-term conditions* | Yes | No |
| Helping to ensure effective antimicrobial stewardship | Yes | Yes |
| Caring for patients taking high-risk medicines* | Yes | No |
| Ordering routine blood tests according to local clinical protocols | Yes | Yes |
| Helping to ensure Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and National Reporting and Learning Service (NRLS) alerts are actioned | Yes | Yes |
| Dealing with repeat prescription requests according to local policies and procedures | Yes | Yes |
| Liaising with patients and local community pharmacies to understand, advise upon, and resolve medication supply issues | Yes | Yes |
| Working in a patient-facing role to enable individuals to get the best out of their medicines (eg, identifying medication adherence issues, synchronising repeat prescriptions, dealing with supply issues) | Yes | Yes |
| Undertaking level 1 medication reviews | Yes | Yes |
Advanced Level Practice
| Advanced Level | Pharmacist | Pharm Tech |
| Reviewing the implementation of policies and procedures related to medicines governance | Yes | Yes |
| Actioning National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance | Yes | Yes |
| Investigating and escalating appropriately any incidents (including safeguarding) relating to medicines or their use by patients or within the practice | Yes | Yes |
| Switching medicines to a more cost-effective alternative according to local protocols | Yes | Yes |
| Resolving medication adherence issues (eg, changing administration times, suggesting alternative delivery systems) | Yes | Yes |
| Completing effective medicines reconciliation at transfer of care according to local policies and procedures actioning any changes required | Yes | Yes |
| Undertaking level 2 medication reviews (depending on competence and experience) within the practice or as domiciliary visit. | Yes | Yes |
| Delivering person-centred consultations for acute illness or long-term conditions using appropriate clinical examination and diagnostic skills as part of a multidisciplinary team | Yes | Yes |
| Individualising dosing of medicines (eg, anticoagulants) | Yes | Yes |
| Preventing falls* | Yes | No |
| Optimising medicines for those with multiple long-term conditions* | Yes | No |
| Reviewing complex medication regimes, deprescribing where appropriate* | Yes | No |
| Caring for older and frail patients, including those with dementia | Yes | No |
| Offering end-of-life care | Yes | No |
| Reducing treatment burden including deprescribing | Yes | No |
| Using clinical and pharmaceutical expertise to care for clinical conditions such as acute presentations of common illnesses, exacerbations of depression or anxiety, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), diabetes or heart failure | Yes | No |
If you think you want to adapt the above to your practice, you may also find the following document useful. Click on the three dots (…) to get a link for the download file.
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