Under pharmacist supervision, pharmacy technicians:
- supply medicines to patients, whether on prescription or over the counter
- assemble medicines for prescriptions
- provide information to patients and other healthcare professionals.
Pharmacy technicians also:
- manage areas of medicines supply such as dispensaries
- supervise other pharmacy staff
- produce medicines in hospitals and the pharmaceutical industry.
Where do pharmacy technicians work?
Pharmacy technicians work in many different work environments. These include:
- Community pharmacies (sometimes called retail or high street pharmacy) and hospitals. Most pharmacy technicians work in community and hospital pharmacy
- Pharmaceutical production or sales in the pharmaceutical industry
- Prisons, primary care organisations, education and training, the military, veterinary pharmacy and pharmacy organisations.
Pharmacy technician registration
A person calling themselves a pharmacy technician must be registered with the GPhC.
You can search our register to see that a pharmacy technician is practising legally and if they have outstanding fitness to practise allegations against them.
For more information about the process a pharmacist must go through to become and stay registered, see Registering as a pharmacy technician.