World Pharmacy Technician Day: From apprenticeships to new powers

World Pharmacy Technician Day - celebrating the vital contributions that pharmacy technicians make every day

In celebration of World Pharmacy Technician Day today, we have gathered some significant achievements from this year that highlight the growing recognition of pharmacy technicians as integral members of the pharmacy team.

During the Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK (APTUK) Conference in September, NHS England's Chief Pharmaceutical Officer, David Webb, announced 530 apprenticeships for community pharmacy pre-registration pharmacy technicians (PTPs) for the 2024/25 period.

“This announcement shows a real investment in pharmacy technicians. It will impact all areas of practice, not just within community pharmacies,” said Nicola Stockmann, APTUK President, in an exclusive interview with Pharmacy Business.

In August, the Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education (CPPE) was allocated funding to offer 80 NHS England-funded places in its Accuracy Checking Pharmacy Technician (ACPT) programme.

This 3-12 month course is designed to help pharmacy technicians develop a range of competencies, ensuring they can deliver safe and effective patient care.

Up to 10 NHSE-funded spots will be available each month on a first-come, first-served basis for pharmacy technicians working in community pharmacies, NHS hospitals, and health and justice settings.

The funding will remain available until all 80 places are filled or until March 2025.

In July, APTUK began collaborating with Professor Mahendra Patel OBE, Director of the Centre for Research Equity at the University of Oxford, on a health equality study.

The Genes and Health study, led by Queen Mary University of London and funded by the Wellcome Trust, aims to improve health outcomes for British-Bangladeshi and British-Pakistani communities by involving the broader pharmacy workforce, including pharmacy technicians.

According to APTUK, this research will utilise pharmacy technicians and their skillsets as registered autonomous pharmacy professionals to support essential health inequalities work.

“This also provides pharmacy technicians the opportunity to gain experience of supporting research in a community pharmacy setting,” it said.

This opportunity specifically targets pharmacy technicians working in independent community pharmacies in Banbury, Oxford City, Reading, Slough, High Wycombe, and Aylesbury.

On June 26, legislative amendments came into effect, allowing pharmacy technicians to supply and administer medicines, including prescription-only medicines (POMs), under patient group directions (PGDs).

This move followed a public consultation by the DHSC that found strong support for granting new powers to pharmacy technicians to “cut bureaucracy and support more efficient patient care.”

APTUK President Nicola Stockmann welcomed the implementation of these long-awaited changes, noting, “The expansion of the scope of practice for the profession has been the culmination of years of work and lobbying, as well as engagement with the DHSC’s consultation in 2023.”

The previous month, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) announced the expansion of access to take-home naloxone supplies, allowing more services and professionals including pharmacy technicians to provide this life-saving medication (used to treat opioid overdoses) without a prescription.

Pharmacy technicians are now eagerly awaiting the outcome of the DHSC's consultation on supervision, launched in December 2023.

This consultation proposes legislative changes that would enable registered pharmacy technicians to carry out or supervise the preparation, assembly, dispensing, sale, and supply of POMs and P medicines.

APTUK views this as “a long overdue and positive step that will benefit patients and the wider profession.”

It said: “The proposal will support the NHS Workforce and Recovery Plans across the UK, enabling the skills and knowledge of registered Pharmacy Technicians to assist in the safe supply of medicines. Skill mix in pharmacy will be enhanced and barriers to effective implementation of new services and novel ways of working will be removed.”

To celebrate World Pharmacy Technician Day, the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board encourages employers, educators, organisations, and the public to find ways to recognise the vital contributions that technicians make every day.