Clinical Pharmacist

Job description

Job responsibilities

Mid-Dorset Primary Care Network Clinical Pharmacist

Purpose of the role

This is a new post created to facilitate and support all aspects of medicines optimisation across the nine practices of the Mid Dorset Primary Care Network. The post holder will work as part of the multi-disciplinary network team, primarily with a network GP Prescribing Lead and individual practice GP prescribing leads. The role will involve both working at scale and direct patient contact and is expected to improve quality of patient care leading to operational efficiencies.

Key duties and responsibilities

Collaborative working: Collaborate with other stakeholders as needed for the collective benefit of patients and for peer support, including but not limited to:

• Patients and their representatives

• GPs, nurses and other practice staff

• Community nurses and other allied health professionals, including social prescribers, first contact physiotherapists, physicians associates and paramedics

• Community pharmacists and support staff

• CCG Medicines Management Teams, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians

• CCG, PCN and practice GP prescribing leads

• Residential home staff

• Hospital staff with responsibilities for prescribing and medicines optimisation

• PCN Clinical Director and management team.

Implementation of local and national guidelines and Dorset Formulary recommendations: Assist practices, nursing homes and community pharmacies in with systems to access and adhere to the Dorset Formulary.

Medicines quality improvement:Support practices in actioning prescribing advice given by the Dorset Medicines Management Team, including cost savings programmes. Assist practices in undertaking full audit cycles of prescribing in areas agreed by practice lead GPs, such as those recommended by the Medicines Management Team. Monitor prescribing data relevant to individual practices and support change of practice where most required. Provide manageable newsletters or bulletins to reinforce important prescribing messages.

Medicine safety: Support changes to medicines that result from MHRA alerts, product withdrawal and other local and national guidance. Identification of cohorts of patients at high risk of harm from medicines through pre-prepared practice computer searches, assisting in appropriate follow up and monitoring.

Patient medicines support: Offer face-to-face or telephone consultations to patients highlighted by practice staff as having specific difficulties with their medication or complex needs. Support practices in providing Structured Medication Reviews to patients with polypharmacy and complex needs as outlined in the NHS Network Contract Direct Enhanced Service document. Work with the PCN multi-disciplinary teams and in particular the Frailty Team to provide Structured Medication Reviews to residential home patients. Provide or signpost to patient information. Assist patients, prescribers and pharmacist in manging drug shortages issues.

Practice staff medicines support: Design and implement a system to deal with practice and care home staff medication queries or system difficulties.

Prescription operations efficiency: Assist practices in all areas of prescribing operation efficiency such as communication with residential homes and community pharmacies, electronic prescribing, repeat dispensing, managing repeat prescriptions and reconciling hospital discharge medication.

General practice dispensing: Support practice dispensaries in fulfilling regulations, advising on areas of difficulty.

Service development: Contribute towards the implementation of new services and development of existing services that have medicinal components (e.g. advice on treatment pathways and patient information leaflets).

Public health campaigns: Support public health campaigns. Provide or signpost patients and practice staff to information, such as waiting room posters.

Education and Training: Provide education and training to primary healthcare team on therapeutics and medicines Optimisation, including students on placement.

CQC: Work with the general practice teams to ensure the practices are compliant with CQC standards where medicines are involved.

Knowledge, skills and experience required

• Experience/awareness of the breadth of common acute and long-term conditions that are likely to be seen in a general medical practice.

• Minimum 2 years post graduate experience in pharmacy,

• Holds an independent prescribing qualification

• Able to plan, manage, monitor, advise and review general pharmaceutical care programmes for patients across core areas, including disease states/long term conditions.

• Accountable for delivering professional expertise and direct service provision

• Uses skills in a range of routine situations requiring analysis or comparison of a range of options.

• Able to recognise priorities when problem-solving and identify deviations from normal pattern, referring to seniors or GPs when appropriate.

• Shows an aptitude for collaborative working and proactivity

• Able to follow legal, ethical, professional and organisational policies/procedures and codes of conduct

• Involves patients in decisions about prescribed medicines and supporting adherence as per NICE guidelines.

Professional development

• Work with your line manager to undertake continual personal and professional development, taking an active part in reviewing and developing the role and responsibilities.

• Adhere to organisational policies and procedures, including confidentiality, safeguarding, lone working, information governance, and health and safety, ensuring that mandatory training requirements are up to date.

• Work with your line manager to access regular clinical supervision, to enable you to deal effectively with the difficult issues that people present.

• Review yearly progress and develop clear plans to achieve results within priorities set by others.

• Participate in the delivery of formal education programmes.

• Demonstrate an understanding of current educational policies relevant to working areas of practice and keep up to date with relevant clinical practice.

  Research and Evaluation

• Critically evaluate and review literature.

• Identify where there is a gap in the evidence base to support practice.

• Generate evidence suitable for presentations at practice and local level.

• Apply research evidence base into the workplace.

  Health and Safety/Risk Management

• Must comply at all times with the Health and Safety policies, in particular following safe working procedures and reporting incidents using the organisations Incident Reporting Systems

• Comply with the Data Protection Act (2018) and the Access to Health Records Act (1990).

  Special working conditions

• The post holder is required to travel independently between work sites and to attend meetings etc hosted by other agencies.

• The post-holder will have contact with body fluids, i.e. wound exudates, urine etc while in clinical practice.

  Miscellaneous

• Work as part of the team to seek feedback, continually improve the service and contribute to business planning.

• Undertake any tasks consistent with the level of the post and the scope of the role, ensuring that work is delivered in a timely and effective manner.

• Duties will continually vary and evolve in response to patient, practices and PCN needs without changing the general character of the post or the level of responsibility.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Completion of an undergraduate degree in pharmacy and registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council.
• Demonstrates an understanding of, and conforms to, relevant standards of practice.
• Follows professional and organisational policies/ procedures relating to performance management

Desirable

• Hold or be working towards an independent prescribing qualification
• Clinical Diploma

Experience

Essential

• Minimum of two years experience as a pharmacist, demonstrated within a practice portfolio
• Experience and an awareness of the breadth of common acute and long-terms conditions that are likely to be seen in general practice
• Demonstrates ability to integrate general practice with community and hospital pharmacy teams community groups
• Experience of partnership/collaborative working and of building relationships across a variety of organisations

Personal Qualities

Essential

• A commitment to reducing health inequalities and proactively working to reach people from all communities
• 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)
• Able to recognise personal limitations and refer to more appropriate colleague(s) when necessary
• Able to identify risk and assess/manage risk when working with individuals
• Able to work under pressure and meet deadlines
• Demonstrates accountability for delivering professional expertise and direct service provision
• Able to provide leadership and to finish work tasks
• Able to maintain effective working relationships and to promote collaborative practice with all colleagues
• Demonstrates personal accountability, emotional resilience and works well under pressure
• Able to organise, plan and prioritise on own initiative, including when under pressure and meeting deadlines
• High level of written and oral communication skills
• Ability to work flexibly and enthusiastically within a team or on own initiative
• Knowledge of and ability to work to policies and procedures, including confidentiality, safeguarding, lone working, information governance, and health and safety

Professional Registration

Essential

• Mandatory registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council

Desirable

• Membership Primary Care Pharmacy Association (PCPA)
• Membership of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society

Skills and Knowledge

Essential

• Understanding of the wider determinants of health, including social, economic and environmental factors and their impact on communities
• An appreciation of the nature of primary care prescribing, concepts of rational prescribing and strategies for improving prescribing
• Knowledge of IT systems, including ability to use word processing skills, emails and the internet to create simple plans and reports
• Able to obtain and analyse complex technical information
• Able to gain acceptance for recommendations and influence/motivate/persuade the audience to comply with the recommendations/agreed course of action where there may be significant barriers
• Able to identify and resolve risk management issues according to policy/protocol
• Understand the principles of research governance

Desirable

• In depth therapeutic and clinical knowledge and understanding of the principles of evidence-based healthcare
• Able to plan, manage, monitor and review general medicine optimisation issues in core areas for long term conditions

Other

Essential

• Meets DBS reference standards and has a clear criminal record, in line with the law on spent convictions
• Adaptable
• Self-motivated
• Safeguarding and other mandatory training
• Immunisation status
• Car driver with access to own transport and ability to travel across the locality on a regular basis, including to visit people in their own homes

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

Cerne Abbas Surgery

Address

51 Long Street

Cerne Abbas

Dorchester

Dorset

DT2 7JG

Employer's website

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