Lead Pharmacy Assistant – Community Services | East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust
| Posting date: | 31 December 2025 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | Not specified |
| Additional salary information: | £27,485 - £30,162 per annum pro rata |
| Hours: | Part time |
| Closing date: | 30 January 2026 |
| Location: | Ipswich, IP4 5PD |
| Company: | Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Job reference: | 7710065/432-HR1081-25 |
Summary
Have you got the enthusiasm and passion to take the next step in your career in an acute hospital pharmacy department?
We have an exciting opportunity for a pharmacy assistant who has recent pharmacy practice experience to develop their leadership skills and become a Lead Pharmacy Assistant for community services. Based within the pharmacy department at Ipswich hospital you will contribute to our team by delivering a safe and effective pharmacy service to East Suffolk community hospitals, St Elizabeth hospice, and other agreed external bodies.
You will play a pivotal role in the delivery of a high quality service to our patients and service users by taking on a lead role with in our pharmacy community team, co-ordinating the flow of work and overseeing our pharmacy assistants.
Using your extensive knowledge of pharmacy practice, you will use your experience to answer queries from colleagues, patients and other service users to ensure the provision of a professional friendly service.
In order to help you make this next step in your career, support and training will be provided. This includes support and mentorship from the Managers, pharmacy related courses and in-house training including the Trust’s Emerging Leader Course.
This role will require weekend working and is based within the Pharmacy department at Ipswich Hospital.
Details about our pharmacy service - https://esneft.pagetiger.com/buqzfou/1
• Day to day leadership responsibility for ensuring that operational activity of the community service is undertaken. Provide direct line management to the Assistant team including conducting appraisals, drafting rotas, monitoring attendance and absence levels and monitoring compliance with mandatory training requirements.
• Be the first point of contact for multidisciplinary staff requiring support and/or advice relating to this service.
• Proactively co-ordinate and manage the flow of community work through Dispensary Services to ensure an efficient and safe Pharmacy service to patients and staff.
• Assisting the Lead Community Services Pharmacist and Lead Pharmacy Technicians with the induction, training and development of staff.
• Work collaboratively with wider Pharmacy colleagues to ensure the optimal and cost effective use of medicines; minimising drug wastage accordingly.
We are ESNEFT and we provide hospital and community health services to almost one million people across east Suffolk and north Essex. Our dedicated staff deliver care from acute hospitals in Colchester and Ipswich, community hospitals, surgeries, community clinics and in patients’ own homes
We are one of the largest NHS organisations in England, employing more than 12,000 staff
We pride ourselves on supporting our staff. We offer a wide range of training and development opportunities, as well as flexible working options
Along with supporting you to achieve your career goals we offer a generous pension scheme, unsocial hours payments (where applicable), 27 days annual leave on commencement (pro rata) and access to a range of NHS discounts. Our Staff Health and Wellbeing programme offer a variety of services
Our philosophy is thatTime Mattersto everyone. Across the Trust, we concentrate on improving the things we do and removing those which cause time delays for our staff and patients
We are investing in our commitment to Time Matters with a partnership with leading electronic patient record (EPR) supplier Epic. This digital transformation will bring what’s widely regarded as the world’s best EPR system to ESNEFT, transforming life in hospital for staff and patients
If you are passionate about patient care and want to develop your skills and knowledge, then we want to hear from you
Find out about living and working here -www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkPu7HphU8A
For full details of the responsibilities and duties of this role please see the attached job description.
This advert closes on Tuesday 13 Jan 2026