Pharmacy Warehouse Operative

Job description

NHS Band 3 Salary: £25,760 - £27,476 per annum
Hours Per Week: 37.5 hours per week
Contract:  Permanent
An exciting opportunity to join a dynamic and passionate team has become available at our Regional Drug Procurement Centre.
As a Pharmacy Warehouse Operative you will assist in providing support to deliver the supply of pharmaceuticals to Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust (PHU) and carry out the receipt and distribution of wholesaling activities from the Regional Drug Purchasing Centre (RDPC) to external customer. Help to maintain the standards required by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in order to keep the department’s wholesaler dealer licence and reputation with customers. To ensure that the RDPC maintains the standards required by the Home Office in order to keep the department’s Controlled Drug licence.
The Pharmacy procurement and wholesale distribution team process orders, receipts, checks, picks, packs, and delivers over 5 million medicines each year. As well as this the team operate as a trading short – line NHS wholesaler, they pick orders for ward boxes that are supplied to the hospital and act as first line responders to stock shortages by investigating alternative supply routes so that patient care and treatment is not compromised. The unit holds an MHRA wholesaler dealers’ licence and is subject to Good Distribution Practice (GDP) regulations and MHRA inspections.
Job Purpose:
•  To provide support to deliver the supply of pharmaceuticals to Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust (PHU) and carry out the receipt and distribution of wholesaling activities from the Regional Drug Purchasing Centre (RDPC) to external customer.
• Help to maintain the standards required by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in order to keep the department’s wholesaler dealer licence and reputation with customers.
• Help to maintain the standards required by the Home Office in order to keep the department’s Controlled Drug licence.
Specific Core Functions:
• Undertaking the day-to-day activities required to ensure all deadlines are met and that work is completed according to written work instructions and Good Distribution Practice, Health and Safety at work act and any other legislation where applicable.
• Receiving& responding to phone complex calls/emails from PHU wards/departments and external hospitals and customers asking for advice on a range of issues to include medication supplies, stock queries and supply shortage issues and delivery schedules.
• Staff will also be required to deliver training to staff who rotate from PHU in their student technician roles and pre-registration pharmacist roles as well as new starters in the department.
• Enforcement of quality management systems within the department including completion of documentation, maintenance of quality indicators and compliance with the results of audits to ensure the standards of GDP required by the MHRA are met at all times.
• Receipting of pharmaceutical stock and checking against delivery notes or copy orders, highlighting discrepancies to the warehouse manager or office team.
• Ensuring that pharmaceutical stock is stored with due regard to storage requirements and stock rotation, to include ambient, refrigerated, controlled drugs, unlicensed and robot items.
• Creating picking lists for stock from orders generated by wards and departments served by PHU using computerised options including a bar code reader or keyboard data entry.
For full job details and person specification please refer to the  Job Description
Qualifications
Essential:
• Good education standard e.g. GCSE’s in English and Mathematics or equivalent
• Willingness to undertake in-house and Trust training essential for the post
Experience
Essential
• Manual Handling skills – weights of up to 25kg regularly moved manually, greater weights by means of electrical or mechanical equipment - training provided.
• Ability to work using own initiative and without supervision.
• Able to maintain high concentration for long periods.
• Ability to work safely under pressure.
• Ability to work flexibly and prioritise workload.
• Health & Safety/security awareness.
• Knowledge of principles of GDP (good distribution practice) and Quality Management Systems.
• Good understanding of principles of stock control.
• Able to investigate problems logically.
• Demonstrated ability to handle hazardous materials safely and according to local work instructions.
• Proactive attitude to ongoing training and assessment.
Desirable
• Previous experience in a similar role.
• Previous experience working with pharmaceuticals.
• Experience of stock control/handling.
• Fork-lift driving licence – training provided.
• Full clean UK driving licence.
Additional Information
The health and wellbeing of our staff is at the forefront of everything we do. We are proud to be able to offer our staff some fantastic benefits including our on-site Nursery, access to our free Beach Hut for those long summer days, our on-site Wellness Centre including a gym and a swimming pool, access to our fantastic staff networks including LGBTQ, Race Equality and DisAbility, and awards ceremonies to recognise your achievements. We believe we can offer support to all of our staff when they need it the most.
We welcome the unique contributions that you can bring in terms of your education, opinions, culture, ethnicity, race, sex, gender identity and expression, nation of origin, age, languages spoken, veteran’s status, colour, religion, disability, sexual orientation, and beliefs.
For more information, please see our  People and OD Strategy 2026
Smoke Free Policy:
All of our hospitals operate a strict no smoking policy. Smoking cigarettes or tobacco products is not allowed on any of the grounds or in any of the buildings run by us. This applies to patients, staff, carers and visitors to Trust premises.
Our goal is to improve the health and wellbeing of everyone we care for and, by making sure that our NHS services are smoke-free, we benefit the health of people who use our services as well as the health of the people who work for us.
About the Company
Here at Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust, we are proud to provide expert, compassionate care for our local population. We are ranked as the third in the country for research, embedding education and training across the organisation. Our main hub is the Queen Alexandra Hospital, which is one of the largest hospitals on the south coast employing over 8,700 staff.
Our patients come from all walks of life and so do we. We hire great people from a wide variety of backgrounds because it makes our hospital stronger. If you share our values and our enthusiasm for getting it right for patients, colleagues, and our community, you will find a home at Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust.