Clinical Pharmacist

Job responsibilities

Job Description

Job Title: Clinical Pharmacist

Responsible To: Practice Manger

Accountable To: Primary Care Network Clinical Director

Relationships: Eynsham and Witney PCN, but based at the Windrush Medical Practice

Hours: up to Full time

Job Purpose

The key aims for the clinical pharmacist are:

Increase safety and quality of prescribed medicines

Provide support on medicines related issues to the whole practice team

Be a point of contact for patients regarding medicines queries

They should support the following clinical work:

Clinical Medication Review

They should also support the following practice development work:

Focusing on QoF, IIF and PQS Domains

Prescribing Safety, Clinical audit, Local Enhanced Services support

Key working relationships

Patients

Windrush Medical Practice Staff, including GPs, PCN clinical pharmacists, nurses and other practice staff members

GP Clinical Lead(s)

PCN Clinical Director(s)

Community nurses and other allied health professionals

Secondary care clinicians.

Responsibilities underpinning the role

The following are the core responsibilities of the Clinical Pharmacist. On occasion there may be a requirement to carry out other tasks: this will be dependent on factors such as workload and staffing levels:

To discuss medication issues with patients as needed and appropriate by telephone, e.g. adverse effects/interactions, overdose/inadvertent ingestion, OTC remedies, queries from dispensary, queries from care homes. To respond to dispensary queries to include, re-authorise repeats where there are queries, clarify doses, clarify products, give appropriate alternatives when availability issues. To discuss specific patient and prescribing issues (e.g. complicated regimes/polypharmacy, compliance difficulties, multiple adverse effects, medication reduction regimes) with other clinicians as necessary. To support the completion of pink (medication administration) forms for district nurses for GPs to sign. To visit nursing homes to carry out reviews of MAR sheets/patients medications.

Medicines Reconciliation:

To review secondary care requests for new medication (as communicated by discharge summaries, outpatient letters, etc.) and raise any queries with relevant GP, and discuss how to respond when inappropriate prescribing requests arise.

To deal with anticoagulant start/stop requests from secondary care and contact patients who have defaulted on INRs.

Medicines Information/Education:

To monitor and inform colleagues as relevant about ongoing prescribing issues, e.g. new guidelines (national and local), new products being asked for by secondary care, manufacturing and supply problems, new prescribing restrictions or contraindications, and individual and systematic errors made by colleagues.

To advise on cost effective prescribing and prescribing budget issues.

To keep the prescribing folder on the practice intranet up to date, with admin support.

To train nursing home staff in medicines management.

Prescribing Systems and Policies:

To identify patients in need of medication review and develop the system of patient invitation with the admin team.

To liaise with dispensary, admin and clinical staff in discussing, developing, and implementing medicines management systems in the practice.

To work with the GPs (especially the prescribing lead), Senior Clinical PCN Pharmacist, practice manager, dispensary manager and dispensary team to review, develop and implement prescribing policies and strategies for the whole practice.

To suggest and design audits in relation to prescribing targets, implementation of locality policies and the Quality Outcomes Framework (QOF).

To work with the GPs, Senior Clinical PCN Pharmacist, practice manager, and dispensary manager on choosing and delivering targets for the local Prescribing Incentive Scheme (PIS).

To monitor the practices prescribing performance (via the CCG prescribing dashboard, progress on the PIS, ePACT, etc.), and suggest changes to practice prescribing as appropriate.

To support the delivery of electronic prescribing.

To work with the dispensary team, Senior Clinical PCN Pharmacist and lead dispensing GP to maximize profitability and to perform audits.

Liaison with community and hospital pharmacies:

To support and advise dispensary when needed.

To make best use of community pharmacy medicine use reviews (MURs) for medication reviews.

To rationalise requests for dossette medications. Dispensary will still be responsible for ringing round re availability of products, taking initial calls, requesting new dosettes etc.

This job description is intended as a guide to the duties and responsibilities of the post and should not be regarded as a complete list of those required to be fulfilled under the written statement of the main terms and conditions of employment.

This role profile is intended to provide a broad outline of the main responsibilities only. The post holder will need to be flexible in developing the role and in initial and ongoing discussions with their line manager.

Personal/Professional Development:

The post-holder will participate in any training programme implemented by the Practice as part of this employment, such training to include:

Participation in an annual individual performance review, including taking responsibility for maintaining a record of own personal and/or professional development

Taking responsibility for own development, learning and performance and demonstrating skills and activities to others who are undertaking similar work

Undertake and complete all statutory and mandatory training.

Participate in an appraisal and regular performance reviews.

Promote a learning environment for patients, colleagues and other health professionals.

Contribute to the planning and implementation of the teaching of and support for new and existing staff in the Practice, including GP registrars, medical students and newly-recruited Clinical Pharmacists

Quality

The post-holder will strive to maintain quality within the Practice and will:

Alert other team members to issues of quality and risk

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 recognise the importance of effective communication within the team and will strive to:

Communicate effectively with other team members

Communicate effectively with patients and carers

Recognise 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

Safeguarding

Anyone who works in direct contact with patients has a duty to protect the welfare of patients. Having regular contact with patients, means that you are well placed to identify and recognise when there is a potential issue and understand the processes in place to manage potential concerns.

Qualifications

Essential

• BSc/Grad Dip in Pharmacy Practice.
• A minimum of one years post qualification experience.
• Membership as practising pharmacist with The General Pharmaceutical Council.
• Commitment towards continuing professional development in accordance with requirements of The General Pharmaceutical Council.
• Pharmacist independent prescriber registered with The General Pharmaceutical Council.
• Relevant post registration experience of community, hospital and / or primary care pharmacy practice.

Desirable

• Independent Prescriber

Skills

Essential

• Good interpersonal skills with the ability to communicate effectively with a diverse range of people.
• Ability to work as part of a team and autonomously.
• Knowledge of IT systems email / word / Microsoft teams.
• Excellent written and verbal communication.
• Good time management skills, able to prioritise and organise workload for best effect.
• Ability to promote best practice regarding prescribing issues.
• Ability to maintain a high level of confidentiality and discretion at all times.
• Problem solving & analytical skills.
• Ability to follow policy and procedure.

Desirable

• Knowledge of EMIS used in clinical practice.
• Knowledge of audit and research.

Experience

Essential

• Expert clinical reasoning skills.
• Proven multi-disciplinary working.

Desirable

• Evidence of clinical leadership.
• Evidence of research activity or skills.
• Experience of computer based clinical systems such as EMIS Web.

Personal Qualities

Essential

• Sensitive and empathetic in distressing situations.
• Clear vision of role and commitment to working in Primary Care.
• Disclosure Barring Service (DBS) check.

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).