- October 20, 2026
A first day, a 19th birthday, and almost 25 years in pharmacy: Jennifer’s story
Jennifer Barrell spent her 19th birthday starting her first job in hospital pharmacy. Almost 25 years later, she leads a team of 10 at East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust, helping make sure medicines are available for the patients who need them.
For Pharmacy Technician Day, Jennifer took time out of a busy working routine to share her story with us at Oxford Pharmacy Store. It is a story of learning on the job, taking opportunities as they came, and helping others find their way into a specialist part of pharmacy.
Learning while earning
Jennifer began as a trainee pharmacy technician, combining work in hospital pharmacy with day release to Brighton College for her BTEC. Being able to train and earn at the same time was something she valued, alongside the experience of learning through the work itself.
Her training took her through dispensary, distribution, stores, aseptics and purchasing. Each rotation gave her a chance to experience a different part of hospital pharmacy. The area that would become her career began with a request to help cover a small procurement team.
Not long after qualifying, Jennifer joined a team made up of a purchaser, an invoice clerk and a stores person. A year later, when the purchasing technician moved on, she successfully applied for the Pharmacy Procurement Technician position.
“Now at this point there was only me and our store keeper… how times have changed!”
Growing with the service
Initially, Jennifer handled pharmacy procurement for the hospital. Homecare prescriptions and invoices soon became part of her work too. Following a merger with a second hospital, she took on responsibility for its purchasing clerk and stores.
As homecare grew, so did the need for people to support it. The team expanded to include three purchasing clerks and continued to grow over the years.
Today, around 20 years after she first moved into procurement, Jennifer is Pharmacy Procurement, HCM & Stores Manager. Her team of 10 includes technicians, assistants and administrative staff, covering pharmacy purchasing, stores, high cost medicines and homecare across two acute hospital sites.
Her own responsibilities have grown alongside the service. From hands-on purchasing, she has moved into managing people and operations, with a greater focus on the financial and contractual aspects of pharmacy procurement. Her banding has increased over the years to reflect those responsibilities.
Making room for others to progress
Much of Jennifer’s procurement knowledge has come from doing the job over many years. Regional meetings and conversations with other pharmacy procurement leads have also been invaluable.
With support from her Trust, she completed her CIPS Level 4 certification in 2025. She is now supporting members of her team towards Level 2 and 3 certificates.
For Jennifer, having a qualification pathway matters for non-technical staff as well as technicians, particularly in specialist areas. Her own experience has shown how much there is to learn, and she wants others to have opportunities to develop too.
She would also like more trainee pharmacy technicians to discover procurement: a niche area with an important part to play in hospital services and patient treatment.
The moments that make it worthwhile
Jennifer is honest about the everyday experience of the job:
“Some days are super busy, some are more mundane, and there is always a sense of achievement when you manage to source that urgent obscure medicine for a patient.”
That moment brings the work into focus. The purchasing, invoices, contracts and conversations all contribute to having a medicine available when someone needs it.
Jennifer puts it plainly:
“If we don’t buy it, no patients can be treated!”
Jennifer Barrell, Pharmacy Procurement, HCM & Stores Manager at
East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust.
Thank you, Jennifer, for making time to share your experience, and for encouraging others to explore where a career in pharmacy can take them.
The work of pharmacy procurement isn’t always visible to patients, but its impact is. This Pharmacy Technician Day, we celebrate Jennifer and pharmacy technicians across our healthcare community, whose knowledge, persistence and care help medicines reach the people who need them.
At Oxford Pharmacy Store, we work closely with pharmacy teams to support access to specialist medicines. If your team is looking for an unusual or hard-to-source medicine, get in touch with OPS Customer Service to explore supply options and check availability.
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