Job responsibilities
JOB RESPONSIBILITIES
In conjunction with the practice, to plan and organise the post holders own workload, including medicines management services to the practice, audit and project work, and training sessions for clinical and non-clinical staff
To record personally generated information and maintain a record of information relating to the work done in the practice(s)personally generated information includes information and records relating to audit and clinical work undertaken by the post holder, reference notes relating to clinical/technical information, etc
To develop and facilitate a good working relationship with community pharmacists and other local providers of healthcare
To maintain registration as a pharmacist and comply with appropriate professional codes
As appropriate to the post, to maintain and develop professional competence and expertise, keep up to date with medical/therapeutic evidence and opinion, and local and national service, legislation and policy developments, agree objectives and a personal development plan and participate in the appraisal process
To undertake any other duties commensurate with the post holders grade as agreed with the post holders line manager
Will understand that it is their personal responsibility to comply with all organisational and statutory requirements (e.g. health and safety, equal treatment and diversity, confidentiality and clinical governance)
A Practice Prescribing Pharmacist will work on a self-employed basis and will work within their scope of practice, which is clearly defined and documented in a form of CPD (Continual Professional Development). A competency is achieved by additional qualifications and/orself-directed learning and/or experience through shadowing or supervised practice. Principal Responsibilities:
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.
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
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 and flagging up those needing a review to the GP.
Signing prescriptions as part of a GP surgery based repeat prescription programme (within scope of practice).
Telephone and patient facing medicines and self-care support
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.
Non-medical independent prescribing activities (within scope of practice)
Long-termconditionclinics(Asthma,Hypertension,COPD, management ofPMR(polymyalgiarheumatica)- PMR prescribing and f/u, not diagnosis).
Asthma/COPD/Bronchietasisexacerbations.
Diagnosis and treatment (adults only)of UTIs, URTIs, LRTIs, ENT*, Eye*, Dermatology*, Anxiety/Depression*.
Statins for primary and secondary prevention.
Service development
Contribute pharmaceutical advice for the development and implementation of new services that have medicinal components (e.g. advise 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 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.
Implementation of local and national guidelines and formulary recommendations
Monitor practice prescribing against the local health economys 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).
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.
Confidentiality
You may gain knowledge of confidential matters which may include personal and medical information about patients and staff.
All information, either written or electronic, regarding patients, staff and corporate information must be treated as strictly confidential at all times, and you may not divulge to any other person except with the express authority of a Senior Manager. Such authority may only be given when it is in the patients or staffs own interest and is a necessary part of treatment.
Failure to observe this confidentiality could lead to disciplinary action being taken against you.
Health & Safety:
The post-holder will assist in promoting and maintaining their own and others health, safety and security as defined in the practice Health & Safety Policy, to include:
- Using personal security systems within the workplace according to practice guidelines
- Identifying the risks involved in work activities and undertaking such activities in a way that manages those risks
- Making effective use of training to update knowledge and skills
- Using appropriate infection control procedures, maintaining work areas in a tidy and safe way and free from hazards
- Reporting potential risks identified.
Equality and Diversity:
The post-holder will support the equality, diversity and rights of patients, carers and colleagues, to include:
- Acting in a way that recognizes the importance of peoples rights, interpreting them in a way that is consistent with practice procedures and policies, and current legislation
- Respecting the privacy, dignity, needs and beliefs of patients, carers and colleagues
- Behaving in a manner which is welcoming to and of the individual, is non-judgmental and respects their circumstances, feelings priorities and rights.
Quality:
The post-holder will strive to maintain quality within the practice, and will:
- Alert other team members to issues of quality and risk, particularly upon observation of failure by a team member.
- Assess own performance and take accountability for own actions, either directly or under supervision
- Contribute to the effectiveness of the team by reflecting on own and team activities and making suggestions on ways to improve and enhance the teams performance
- Work effectively with individuals in other agencies to meet patients needs
- Effectively manage own time, workload and resources.
Communication:
The post-holder should recognize the importance of effective communication within the team and will strive to:
- Communicate effectively with other team members
- Communicate effectively with patients and carers
- Recognize peoples needs for alternative methods of communication and respond accordingly.
Contribution to the Implementation of Services:
The post-holder will:
- Apply practice policies, standards and guidance
- Discuss with other members of the team how the policies, standards and guidelines will affect own work
- Participate in audit where appropriate.
Infection Control
It is practice policy to reduce the risk of Healthcare Associated Infection by having in place Infection Prevention and Control Policies. These policies must be adhered to by all staff to ensure patients are cared for in a clean environment and receive the highest standards of clinical care.
Data Protection
Where it is a requirement of the job for the post-holder to use computers or other information technology, he/she will be required to ensure that security procedures are followed as appropriate and that confidential information for example passwords, are not communicated to unauthorised individuals.
