Celebrating Pharmacy Technician Day
David Webb, Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for England and Liz Fidler, Senior Professional Advisor Pharmacy Technician Practice, visited Maidstone Hospital on Tuesday 15 October to celebrate Pharmacy Technician Day.
Pharmacy technicians (PTs), a workforce of 22,000 people across the country, play a vital role in patient care by preparing and dispensing medicines, advising patients and managing supplies. Pharmacy Technician Day takes place on the third Tuesday of October and is an international celebration of the work of PTs. The role has developed over recent years to include medicine reviews and clinical services.
The visit, also attended by Pharmacy colleagues from the Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership (KMPT) and the Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board (ICB), began with opening remarks from Mildred Johnson, Chief Pharmacist and Clinical Director for Pharmacy at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust (MTW), followed by a keynote message from Liz Fidler on the importance of pharmacy technicians and their work in the NHS. Liz, whose career began at Maidstone Hospital, reflected on her career journey and the evolution of the pharmacy technician role.
Chief Pharmacy Technician, Clare Williams, held a session on pharmacy technician led patient group direction training, and a talk on the team’s work on promoting careers in pharmacy to local Year 11 students. Other highlights included a talk on developing digital health with MTW’s lead Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration (EPMA) pharmacy technicians.
MTW’s Pharmacy team successfully led the implementation of an EPMA system across both sites in November 2022. This was a huge transformation programme that modernised medicines management to enhance medicine safety for patients and improve efficiency.
The event concluded with a visit to Maidstone Hospital’s main Pharmacy to meet the dispensing team, and a tour of the award-winning Care Coordination Centre (CCC).
David Webb said: “It was a pleasure to join colleagues at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust for their Pharmacy Technician Day celebration. I met pharmacy technicians working in a wide range of roles, making a vital impact on services and patient care. Thank you for inviting me and sharing your important work”.
Liz Fidler said “It was a privilege to spend International Pharmacy Technician Day with colleagues at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust. It was inspiring to see the scope and roles of pharmacy technicians at the Trust, the one pharmacy team approach to delivering services, and investment in local employment models and retention to support patient care”.
Reflecting on the event, Mildred Johnson said: “It was a pleasure to welcome David and Liz to Maidstone Hospital to celebrate International Pharmacy Technicians’ Day with us. Our pharmacy technicians play a crucial role in our pharmacy service and delivering high quality care, and it was wonderful to celebrate their work with our visitors.”