Job responsibilities
Primary
duties and areas of responsibility
Patient-facing
long-term condition clinics
See
patients in multi-morbidity clinics and in partnership with primary healthcare
colleagues and implement improvements to patients medicines, including
de-prescribing.
Manage
own case load and run long-term condition clinics where medicines have a large
component.
Review
the on-going need for each medicine, a review of monitoring needs and an
opportunity to support patients with their medicines taking, ensuring they get
the best use of their medicines (i.e. medicines optimisation).
Patient-facing
clinical medication review
Undertake
clinical medication reviews with patients with multi-morbidity and polypharmacy
and order relevant monitoring tests.
Patient-facing
care home/residential clinical medication reviews
Manage
own caseload of care home residents.
Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients with multi-morbidity
and polypharmacy and order relevant monitoring tests.
Work
with care home staff to improve safety of medicines ordering and administration.
Patient-facing
domiciliary/home visits
Manage
own caseload of vulnerable housebound patients at risk of hospital admission
and harm from poor use of medicines.
Undertake medication reviews and ordering of monitoring tests.
Attend
and refer patients as necessary identifying key areas of need for vulnerable
patients and formulating care plans.
Management
of common/minor/self-limiting ailments
Signposting
to community pharmacy and referring to GPs or other healthcare professionals
where appropriate.
Patient-facing
medicines support
Provide
patient facing clinics for those with questions, queries and concerns about
their medicines in practice.
Telephone
medicines support
Provide
telephone consultations for patients with questions, queries and concerns about
their medicines.
Medicine
information to practice staff and patients
Answer
all medicine-related enquiries from GPs, other practice staff, other healthcare
teams (e.g. community pharmacy) and patients with queries about medicines.
Suggesting
and recommending solutions.
Providing
follow-up for patients to monitor the effect of any changes.
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 manage
these changes without referral to a GP.
Perform
a clinical medication review, produce a post discharge medicines care plan
including dose titration and booking of follow-up tests 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).
Work
in partnership with hospital colleagues (e.g. care of the elderly doctors and
clinical pharmacists) to proactively manage patients at high-risk of medicine
related problems before they are discharged to ensure continuity of care.
Repeat
prescribing
Produce
and implement a practice repeat prescribing policy. Manage the repeat prescribing reauthorisation
process by reviewing patient requests for repeat prescriptions and reviewing
medicines reaching review dates. Ensure
patients are booked in for necessary monitoring tests where required.
Service
development
Develop
and manage new services that are built around new medicines or NICE guidance,
where new medicine/recommendations allow the development of a new care pathway
(e.g. new oral anticoagulants for stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation).
Information
management
Analyse,
interpret, and present medicines data to highlight issues and risks to support
decision-making.
Medicines
quality improvement programmes
Identify
and provide leadership on areas of prescribing and medicines optimisation.
Conduct
clinical audits and improve projects or work with colleagues such as GP
registrars, practice managers, etc.
Present
results and provide leadership on suggested changes. Contribute to national and local research
initiatives.
Medicines
safety
Identify
national and local policy and guidance that affects patient safety through the
use of medicines, including MHRA alerts, product withdrawals, and emerging
evidence from clinical trials.
Manage
the process of implementing changes to medicines and guidance for
practitioners.
Implementation
of local and national guidelines and formulary recommendations
Monitor
practice prescribing against the local health boards formulary for medicines
that should be prescribed by hospital doctors or subject to shared care.
Liaise
directly with hospital colleagues where prescribing needs to be returned to
specialists. Assist practices in
maintaining a practice formulary that is hosted on the practices computer
system.
Education
and training
Provide
education and training to primary healthcare team on therapeutics and medicines
optimisation.
Provide
training to visiting medical, nursing, pharmacy, and other healthcare students
where appropriate.
Public
health
To
support public health campaigns. To
provide specialist knowledge on all public health programmes available to
general public.
Collaborative
working relationships
Recognise
the roles of other colleagues within the organisation and their role to patient
care.
Demonstrate
use of appropriate communication to gain the co-operation of relevant stakeholders;
including patients, senior and peer colleagues, other professionals, and other
NHS/private organisations.
Demonstrate
the ability to lead a team.
Is
able to recognise personal limitations and refer to more appropriate
colleague(s) where necessary.
Actively
work towards developing and maintaining effective working relationships both
within and outside the practice and locality.
Foster
and maintain strong links with all services across the locality.
Explore
the potential for collaborative working and take opportunities to initiate and
sustain such relationships.
Demonstrate
ability to integrate general practice with community and hospital pharmacy
teams.
Liaise
with HB colleagues including HB pharmacists on prescribing related matters to
ensure consistency of patient care and benefit.
Liaise
with HB pharmacists and Heads of Medicines Management/Optimisation to benefit
from peer support.
Liaise
with other stakeholders as needed for the collective benefit of patients,
including but not limited to:
o Patients, GP, nurses, and other
practice staff
o Other healthcare professionals
including HB pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, optometrists, dentists, health
and social care teams and dieticians
o Locality/GP prescribing lead
o Locality managers
o Community nurses and other allied
health professionals
o Community and hospital pharmacy teams
o Hospital staff with responsibilities
for prescribing and medicines optimisation
Knowledge,
skills, and experience required
Have
an experience/awareness of the breadth of common acute and long-term conditions
that are likely to be seen in a general medical practice.
Be
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.