Job responsibilities
1.
Primary Duties and Areas of Responsibility
Management of
medicines at discharge from hospital
To reconcile
medicines following discharge from hospitals, intermediate care and into care
homes, including identifying and rectifying unexplained changes and working
with patients and community pharmacists to ensure patients receive the
medicines they need post discharge. Set up and manage systems to ensure
continuity of medicines supply to high-risk groups of patients (e.g. those with
medicine compliance aids or those in care homes).
Risk stratification
Identification of
cohorts of patients at high risk of harm from medicines through pre-prepared
practice computer searches. This might include risks that are patient related,
medicine related, or both.
Unplanned hospital
admissions
Review the use of
medicines most commonly associated with unplanned hospital admissions and
readmissions through audit and individual patient reviews. Put in place changes
to reduce the prescribing of these medicines to high-risk patient groups.
Repeat prescribing
Manage the repeat
prescribing reauthorisation process by reviewing patient requests for repeat
prescriptions and reviewing medicines reaching review dates and flagging up
those needing a review to the GP.
Telephone and
patient facing medicines support
Provide a telephone
help line for patients with questions, queries and concerns about their
medicines. Hold clinics for patients requiring face-to-face medicines use
reviews (MURs) i.e. advise about medicines and adherence support.
Medication review
Undertake clinical
medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for the GP on
prescribing and monitoring.
Care home
medication reviews
Undertake clinical
medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for the GP on
prescribing and monitoring. Work with care home staff to improve safety of
medicines ordering and administration.
Domiciliary
clinical medication review
Undertake clinical
medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for the GP on
prescribing and monitoring.
Long-term condition
clinics
See patients with
single medical problems where medicine optimisation is required (e.g. COPD,
asthma). Make recommendations to GPs for medicine improvements.
Service development
Contribute
pharmaceutical advice for the development and implementation of new services
that have medicinal components (e.g. advice on treatment pathways and patient
information leaflets).
Care Quality
Commission
Work with the
practice manager and GPs to ensure the practice is compliant with CQC standards
where medicines are involved. Undertake risk assessment and management and
ensure compliance with medicines legislation
Public health
To contribute to
public health campaigns, including flu & COVID19 vaccinations, and adult immunisation
programmes
Cost saving
programmes
Undertake changes
to medicines (switches) designed to save on medicine costs where a medicine or
product with lower acquisition cost is now available.
Medicine
information to practice staff and patients
Answers all
medicine-related enquiries from GPs, other practice staff and patients with
queries about medicines.
Information Management
Analyse, interpret
and present medicines data to highlight issues and risks to support decision
making.
Medicines quality
improvement
Undertake simple
audits of prescribing in areas directed by the GPs, feedback the results and
implement changes in conjunction with the practice team.
Training
Provide education
and training to primary healthcare team on therapeutics and medicines
optimisation.
Implementation of
local and national guidelines and formulary recommendations
Monitor practice
prescribing against the local health economy RAG list and make recommendations
to GPs for medicines that should be prescribed by hospital doctors (red drugs)
or subject to shared care (amber drugs). Assist practices in seeing and
maintaining a practice formulary that is hosted on the practices computer
system. Auditing practices compliance against NICE technology assessment guidance.
Provide newsletters or bulletins on important prescribing messages.
Medicines safety
Implement changes
to medicines that result from MHRA alerts, product withdrawal and other local
and national guidance.
2. Collaborative
Working Relationships
Recognises the
roles of other colleagues within the organisation and their role to patient
care
Demonstrates use of
appropriate communication to gain the co-operation of relevant stakeholders
(including patients, senior and peer colleagues, and other professionals, other
NHS/private organisations e.g. CCGs)
Demonstrates an ability to work as a member of a team
Is able to
recognise personal limitations and refer to more appropriate colleague(s) when
necessary
Liaises with CCG
colleagues including CCG Pharmacists on prescribing related matters to ensure
consistency of patient care and benefit
Liaises with CCG
pharmacists and Heads of Medicines Management/ Optimisation to benefit from
peer support
Liaises with other
GP Practices and staff as needed for the collective benefit of patients
Including but not
limited to
Patients
GP, nurses and
other practice staff
Other members of
the medicines management (MM) team including pharmacists, technicians and
dieticians
Locality / GP
prescribing lead
Locality managers
Community nurses
and other allied health professionals
Community
pharmacists and support staff
Hospital staff with
responsibilities for prescribing and medicines optimisation
3.
Knowledge, Skills and Experience Required
NB: it is
anticipated that the level of qualification held may vary according to the
level of position and the components of the role being carried out, see person
specification
- Completion of an undergraduate degree in
Pharmacy, and registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council
- Minimum of 2 years post graduate experience in
pharmacy, as demonstrated within a practice portfolio
- Member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society
(RPS)
- Member of or working towards (through
foundation) RPS Faculty membership
- May hold or be working towards a prescribing
qualification
- May hold or be working towards a postgraduate
pharmacy qualification
Has an experience/awareness of the
breadth of common acute and long term conditions that are likely to be seen in
a general medical practice
2 years experience of patient
consultation
4.
Health and Safety/Risk Management
- The post-holder must comply at all times with
the Practices Health and Safety policies, in particular by following
agreed safe working procedures and reporting incidents using the
organisations Incident Reporting System.
- The post-holder will comply with the Data
Protection Act (1984) and the Access to Health Records Act (1990).
5. Equality and
Diversity
- The post-holder must co-operate with all
policies and procedures designed to ensure equality of employment.
Co-workers, patients and visitors must be treated equally irrespective of
gender, ethnic origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, religion etc.
6. Respect for Patient
Confidentiality
- The post-holder should respect patient
confidentiality at all times and not divulge patient information unless
sanctioned by the requirements of the role.
7.
Special Working Conditions
- The post-holder is required to travel
independently between practice sites (where applicable), and to attend
meetings etc hosted by other agencies.
- The post-holder will have contact with body
fluids ie, wound exudates; urine etc while in clinical practice
