UK Pharmacy Technician in New Zealand
Nov 21st 2016, 1:57 am
#1
Just Joined
Thread Starter
Joined: Nov 2016
Posts: 1
UK Pharmacy Technician in New Zealand
Hi! Are there any other UK qualified hospital pharmacy techs in NZ? Just wondered how easy it was for you to find a job, and is it very different to working in the UK? Thanks!
Nov 21st 2016, 1:58 am
#2
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Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 38,612
Re: UK Pharmacy Technician in New Zealand
I'll move this to the NZ forum as there are more folk in there that can maybe comment
Nov 21st 2016, 7:26 am
#3
Forum Regular
Joined: Jul 2014
Location: Beachlands, Auckland
Posts: 229
Re: UK Pharmacy Technician in New Zealand
My wife is a hospital pharmacist. From what I gather, it seems pretty similar. Not sure if the roles of the technicians are as advanced though but no doubt will follow suit with time. If you have some specific questions, shoot me a PM and I can ask her.
Nov 21st 2016, 3:42 pm
#4
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Apr 2016
Location: Surrey
Posts: 523
Re: UK Pharmacy Technician in New Zealand
Hi
Accent health recruitment are looking for pharmacy techs they can advise you on prospects and things like registration
Accent health recruitment are looking for pharmacy techs they can advise you on prospects and things like registration
Nov 25th 2016, 7:36 am
#5
~^_^~
Joined: Jan 2009
Location: Wellington
Posts: 287
Re: UK Pharmacy Technician in New Zealand
Hi, I work in a hospital as a clinical pharmacist and have been involved in training the technicians and the recruitment.
Hospital pharmacy is similar to the UK, but the technician role is not as advanced (I suspect partly because of the lack of registration for technicians). There are becoming more techs based on wards, but it is not happening in all hospitals. Technician checking of dispensing has not started here in full and the pilot for this only finished earlier this year!
We don't do any discharge scripts, which can be nice as less stress in dispensary, but causes a lot of issues with discharge scripts not necessarily being up to date and a lack of communication with the pharmacist who does dispense it (the community pharmacist).
Also, not sure where you worked in the UK but not many hospitals here manufacture their own chemotherapy or TPN which I found different.
In terms of finding a job - can be a bit hit and miss. In my experience, we have employed many technicians from the UK but they have all (except a couple) already been in NZ or had work visas already sorted. Most of our technicians are rotational and we may not wait for the several months it can take for a visa to come through for a rotational tech, but for our specialist posts we have waited. In fact, thinking about it out of our ~15 technicians, currently 5 were recruited from the UK, or shortly after they moved here. It can be difficult to recruit technicians with hospital experience as there's not many out there, so if you do want to go to hospital and currently have a visa, then I think you'd have a good shot if a job comes up. But in many areas the technician jobs don't come up very often.
However, one thing to consider is that the UK qualification is not recognised fully here and so you will need to do a conversion course. At our hospital we pay for this, but I'm not sure about others - and if they don't it can be expensive if you're not here on a permanent visa because then you're charged an international fee.
Anyway, please feel free to PM me for more info if you want. I don't check the forums very often but I'll try to check in again a few times in the next few weeks to see if there's any messages.
Hospital pharmacy is similar to the UK, but the technician role is not as advanced (I suspect partly because of the lack of registration for technicians). There are becoming more techs based on wards, but it is not happening in all hospitals. Technician checking of dispensing has not started here in full and the pilot for this only finished earlier this year!
We don't do any discharge scripts, which can be nice as less stress in dispensary, but causes a lot of issues with discharge scripts not necessarily being up to date and a lack of communication with the pharmacist who does dispense it (the community pharmacist).
Also, not sure where you worked in the UK but not many hospitals here manufacture their own chemotherapy or TPN which I found different.
In terms of finding a job - can be a bit hit and miss. In my experience, we have employed many technicians from the UK but they have all (except a couple) already been in NZ or had work visas already sorted. Most of our technicians are rotational and we may not wait for the several months it can take for a visa to come through for a rotational tech, but for our specialist posts we have waited. In fact, thinking about it out of our ~15 technicians, currently 5 were recruited from the UK, or shortly after they moved here. It can be difficult to recruit technicians with hospital experience as there's not many out there, so if you do want to go to hospital and currently have a visa, then I think you'd have a good shot if a job comes up. But in many areas the technician jobs don't come up very often.
However, one thing to consider is that the UK qualification is not recognised fully here and so you will need to do a conversion course. At our hospital we pay for this, but I'm not sure about others - and if they don't it can be expensive if you're not here on a permanent visa because then you're charged an international fee.
Anyway, please feel free to PM me for more info if you want. I don't check the forums very often but I'll try to check in again a few times in the next few weeks to see if there's any messages.
