Underwood Surgery

Clinical Pharmacist

The closing date is 25 February 2026

Job summary

This is an exciting opportunity to join our established and award-winning Cheltenham Central PCN Pharmacy team and help deliver an ambitious, patient-focused service that supports NHS priorities and public health. You'll lead on medicines optimisation through structured medication reviews, promote safe, effective and cost-conscious prescribing, and empower patients to manage their health, medicines and long-term conditions. This role offers the chance to shape the future of General Practice healthcare and advance the pharmacy profession. You'll work collaboratively within a supportive team that shares knowledge, tackles complex queries together, and encourages professional growth, while also working independently and recognising your limits.

We are looking for a GPhC registered pharmacist with strong clinical knowledge and a good understanding of evidenced-based healthcare. It is advantageous, but not essential, to have completed the CPPE Primary Care Pharmacy Education Pathway and be a qualified Independent Prescriber.

You will excel if you have:

- Excellent communication skills

- Strong organisation and prioritisation

- Flexibility and resilience

- A proactive, adaptable approach

In return, we can offer you a flexible and supportive working environment which values both your personal wellbeing and professional development. If you're passionate about helping people get the most from their medicines and want to contribute to a sustainable NHS, wed love to hear from you.

Main duties of the job

Your role will be to support the ongoing work within Cheltenham Central PCN, to deliver medicines optimisation and offer high quality, safe and cost-effective medicines and patient centred care. You will work closely with individual practice leads at your designated practice(s) and the pharmacy team to tailor the delivery of network priorities and targets with a practice-based focus. Main duties include medication reviews and management of long-term conditions, providing medicines information and advice to patients and colleagues, audit and quality improvement work, leading of safe prescribing and ensuring the practices are CQC compliant. This list is not exhaustive: see full details in the attachment to this advert.

About us

Cheltenham Central PCN consists of 5 GP practices serving a population of over 50,000 people.Our well-established pharmacy team of 7 Pharmacists and 3 Pharmacy Technicians benefit from experienced joint Lead Pharmacists, who will support you both professionally and personally to help embed you into the role.

We have a forward thinking and supportive PCN Leadership Team, who champion the benefits Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians can bring to General Practice. With teaching practices within the PCN, there is a positive learning environment with the opportunity to teach various members of the MDT. We have generous leave allowances and consider flexible working, aiming to optimise work life balance whilst providing a high quality and reliable service.

Our team are supportive of one another, embrace our diversity, and constantly learn from each other. We benefit from a fresh and modern joint working space, allowing the team to consult colleagues for help. We champion face to face clinics and developing our clinical skills via access to clinic rooms, where available, whilst managing the day-to-day medicines management workflow (medication requests, clinical letters and queries and discharges).

If you enjoy a sociable, friendly and collaborative team, as well as autonomous working, helping to develop other professionals and up-skill yourself, then this is the environment to grow your talents and strive to work to the top of your professional capabilities and beyond.

Details

Date posted

05 February 2026

Pay scheme

Other

Salary

£36,000 to £51,000 a year Pay depending on experience

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Full-time, Part-time, Flexible working

Reference number

A0438-23-0001

Job locations

Wilson Health Centre

236 Prestbury Road

Cheltenham

GL523EY


Job description

Job responsibilities

Please refer to the full job description and personal specification attached to this advert.

Brief description (Job Summary and Purpose):

The post holder will work within the Cheltenham Central PCN, which includes 5 practices across Cheltenham, ensuring that medicines management processes within these practices are optimised to achieve highly effective, safe and patient-centred prescribing. You will be allocated practices (up to two practices depending on hours worked) to work between within your working hours.

Each practice has a buddy system in place, to allow for cross cover and support. This helps embed the individuals in the surgery and improve communications and consistency in cover by sharing knowledge and experience of practice working.

We aim for each practice to have a primary or lead Pharmacist who will lead on pharmacy related workflow at the individual practice and be their point of contact with the PCN pharmacy team. This person will liaise with the other pharmacists in the PCN and practice-based teams, and work with the PCN team Lead Pharmacists as required to share best practice and gain support and advice, and top down information from county wide meetings to share with the practice.

The post holder will be a pharmacist, who acts within their professional boundaries, supporting and working alongside a team of Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians. In this role they will be supported by the Lead Clinical Pharmacists who will develop, manage and mentor them

The post holder will work as part of a multi-disciplinary team in a patient-facing role. The post holder will take responsibility for areas of chronic disease management within the practice and undertake clinical medication reviews to proactively manage patients with complex polypharmacy.

The post holder will provide primary support to general practice staff dealing with prescription and medication queries. They will help support the repeat prescription process, deal with acute prescription requests, and carry out medicines reconciliation on transfer of care. They will help implement systems for safer prescribing, providing expertise in clinical medicines advice while addressing both public health and social care needs of patient in the GP practice (s).

The post holder will provide clinical leadership on medicines optimisation and quality improvement and help in the management of some aspects of the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) and local enhanced services.

The post holder will ensure that the practice integrates with community and hospital pharmacy to help utilise skill mix, improve patient outcomes, ensure better access to healthcare and help manage workload. The role is pivotal to improving the quality of care and operational efficiencies so requires motivation and passion to deliver excellent service within general practice.

The post holder will ideally already be an Independent Prescriber and have undertaken the CPPE Primary Care Education Pathway or have completed the Exemption and equivalence processes for the Primary Care Pharmacy Education Pathway. However, if they do not hold these qualifications then training will be provided and supported.

Job description

Job responsibilities

Please refer to the full job description and personal specification attached to this advert.

Brief description (Job Summary and Purpose):

The post holder will work within the Cheltenham Central PCN, which includes 5 practices across Cheltenham, ensuring that medicines management processes within these practices are optimised to achieve highly effective, safe and patient-centred prescribing. You will be allocated practices (up to two practices depending on hours worked) to work between within your working hours.

Each practice has a buddy system in place, to allow for cross cover and support. This helps embed the individuals in the surgery and improve communications and consistency in cover by sharing knowledge and experience of practice working.

We aim for each practice to have a primary or lead Pharmacist who will lead on pharmacy related workflow at the individual practice and be their point of contact with the PCN pharmacy team. This person will liaise with the other pharmacists in the PCN and practice-based teams, and work with the PCN team Lead Pharmacists as required to share best practice and gain support and advice, and top down information from county wide meetings to share with the practice.

The post holder will be a pharmacist, who acts within their professional boundaries, supporting and working alongside a team of Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians. In this role they will be supported by the Lead Clinical Pharmacists who will develop, manage and mentor them

The post holder will work as part of a multi-disciplinary team in a patient-facing role. The post holder will take responsibility for areas of chronic disease management within the practice and undertake clinical medication reviews to proactively manage patients with complex polypharmacy.

The post holder will provide primary support to general practice staff dealing with prescription and medication queries. They will help support the repeat prescription process, deal with acute prescription requests, and carry out medicines reconciliation on transfer of care. They will help implement systems for safer prescribing, providing expertise in clinical medicines advice while addressing both public health and social care needs of patient in the GP practice (s).

The post holder will provide clinical leadership on medicines optimisation and quality improvement and help in the management of some aspects of the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) and local enhanced services.

The post holder will ensure that the practice integrates with community and hospital pharmacy to help utilise skill mix, improve patient outcomes, ensure better access to healthcare and help manage workload. The role is pivotal to improving the quality of care and operational efficiencies so requires motivation and passion to deliver excellent service within general practice.

The post holder will ideally already be an Independent Prescriber and have undertaken the CPPE Primary Care Education Pathway or have completed the Exemption and equivalence processes for the Primary Care Pharmacy Education Pathway. However, if they do not hold these qualifications then training will be provided and supported.

Person Specification

Experience

Desirable

  • Experience of working in GP practice
  • An appreciation of the nature of general practice & PCNs
  • Sound therapeutic and clinical knowledge and understanding of the principles of evidencebased healthcare
  • Experience of patient facing working

Knowledge and skills

Essential

  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills
  • Good time keeping
  • Recognises priorities when problem solving and identifies deviations from the normal pattern and is able to refer to seniors or GPs when appropriate
  • Work effectively independently and as a team member
  • Self-motivation & Initiative

Desirable

  • Excellent interpersonal, influencing and negotiating skills
  • Good IT skills

Qualifications

Essential

  • MPharm degree
  • Registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council.

Desirable

  • Independent Prescriber
  • Primary Care Education Pathway, Statement of Progression.
  • Membership of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society
Person Specification

Experience

Desirable

  • Experience of working in GP practice
  • An appreciation of the nature of general practice & PCNs
  • Sound therapeutic and clinical knowledge and understanding of the principles of evidencebased healthcare
  • Experience of patient facing working

Knowledge and skills

Essential

  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills
  • Good time keeping
  • Recognises priorities when problem solving and identifies deviations from the normal pattern and is able to refer to seniors or GPs when appropriate
  • Work effectively independently and as a team member
  • Self-motivation & Initiative

Desirable

  • Excellent interpersonal, influencing and negotiating skills
  • Good IT skills

Qualifications

Essential

  • MPharm degree
  • Registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council.

Desirable

  • Independent Prescriber
  • Primary Care Education Pathway, Statement of Progression.
  • Membership of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Additional information

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Employer details

Employer name

Underwood Surgery

Address

Wilson Health Centre

236 Prestbury Road

Cheltenham

GL523EY


Employer's website

https://underwoodsurgery.co.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)

Employer details

Employer name

Underwood Surgery

Address

Wilson Health Centre

236 Prestbury Road

Cheltenham

GL523EY


Employer's website

https://underwoodsurgery.co.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)

Employer contact details

For questions about the job, contact:

Lead Clinical Pharmacist

Bev Bazant-Hegemark

beverley.bazant@nhs.net

Details

Date posted

05 February 2026

Pay scheme

Other

Salary

£36,000 to £51,000 a year Pay depending on experience

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Full-time, Part-time, Flexible working

Reference number

A0438-23-0001

Job locations

Wilson Health Centre

236 Prestbury Road

Cheltenham

GL523EY


Supporting documents

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