Craig Hurst

I am a registered Pharmacy technician and have worked for the Pharmacy department for nearly 30 years. For the last 20 years I have specialised in Pharmacy procurement.

The main elements of the role are

• Managing the procurement team who perform the day to day ordering, invoicing and all aspects of ordering pharmaceuticals and associated products.
• Dealing with and advising the procurement team on medicines that are out of stock or unavailable due to manufacturing issues.
• Sourcing alternative products for unavailable medicines and liaising with Pharmacists, Doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals to ensure the replacement is clinically appropriate.
• Sourcing new licensed medicines and ensuring they are available for patients within a specified timeframe.
• Sourcing unlicensed medicines from specialist pharmaceutical import companies, UK NHS production units and commercial specials manufacturers to meet patient need.
• Maintaining the pharmacy system to ensure new NHS contracts for medicines are set up and ready to be ordered from the contract start dates.
• Meeting and corresponding with Pharmaceutical wholesalers and manufacturers on a regular basis to ensure good service levels are maintained and best prices are obtained.