Pharmacy Technicians are registered professionals working within the regulatory standards for pharmacy, as set by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) Pharmacy Order 2010. Pharmacy Technicians work in a wide range of settings, including (but not exclusively): registered pharmacies, community services, justice (the Prison Service), GP Practices, dispensing doctors’ practices, care homes and clinical commissioning groups, hospitals, mental health, defence (HM Armed Services) and within the pharmaceutical industry, Pharmacy technicians manage the supply of medicines and devices in a pharmacy and assist pharmacists with advisory services.

The actual work setting will determine the specific areas of activity that the Pharmacy Technician undertakes, but typically their role will include the following

• providing safe and effective pharmacy services
• supply medicines and devices to patients
• whether on prescription or over the counter
• achieving the best outcomes through a patient’s medicines
• assemble medicines for prescriptions
• provide information to patients and other healthcare professionals.
• manage areas of medicines supply such as dispensaries
• supervise other pharmacy staff
• answering customers questions face to face or by phone
• pre-packing, assembling and labelling medicines
• referring problems or queries to the pharmacist

A Pharmacy Technician is responsible for carrying out both routine and specialist services, including highly complex activities requiring them to use their professional judgement. They are expected to work both individually and as part of a multi-disciplinary team. They can work with minimum supervision, with a high degree of autonomy, taking responsibility for the quality and accuracy of the work that they have undertaken and that of others.