Job responsibilities
Clinical/Contractual Support
- Provide leadership on person-centred medicines optimisation (including ensuring prescribers in the practice conserve antibiotics in line with local antimicrobial stewardship guidance) and quality improvement, whilst contributing to the quality and outcomes framework and enhanced services;
- Through structured medication reviews, support patients to take their medications to get the best from them, reduce waste and promote self-care;
- Have a leadership role in supporting further integration of general practice with the wider healthcare teams (including community and hospital pharmacy) to help improve patient outcomes, ensure better access to healthcare and help manage general practice workload;
- Develop relationships and work closely with other pharmacy professionals across PCNs and the wider health and social care system;
- Take a central role in the clinical aspects of shared care protocols, clinical research with medicines, liaison with specialist pharmacists (including mental health and reduction of inappropriate antipsychotic use in people with learning difficulties), liaison with community pharmacists and anticoagulation; and
- Be part of a professional clinical network and have access to appropriate clinical supervision.
- High risk drug monitoring, and Get involved in audits, set by CCG or towards borough wide aims and targets. Run searches for local and national medication alerts/shortages.
- Work as part of a multi-disciplinary team in a patient facing role to clinically assess and treat patients using their expert knowledge of medicines for specific disease areas;
- Be responsible for the care management of patients with chronic diseases and undertake clinical medication reviews to proactively manage people with complex polypharmacy, especially the elderly, people in care homes, those with multiple co-morbidities (in particular frailty, COPD and asthma) and people with learning disabilities or autism (through STOMP Stop Over Medication Programme);
- Patient facing Long-term condition Clinics
See (where appropriate) patients with single or multiple medical problems where medicine optimisation is required (e.g. COPD, asthma).
- 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). Make appropriate recommendations to Senior Pharmacists or GPs for medicine improvement
Patient facing Clinical Medication Review
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). Make appropriate recommendations to Senior Pharmacists or GPs for medicine improvement
Management of common/minor/self-limiting ailments
Managing caseload of patients with common/minor/self-limiting ailments while working within a scope of practice and limits of competence.
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 the practice
Medicine information to practice staff and patients
Answers relevant 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
Do appropriate database searches, in keeping MHRA and NICE alerts/ guidance to support safe patient care.
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 highrisk patient groups.
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.
Signposting
Ensure that patients are referred to the appropriate healthcare professional for the appropriate level of care within an appropriate period of time e.g. pathology results, common/minor ailments, acute conditions, long term condition reviews etc.
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.
Ensure patients have appropriate monitoring tests in place when required.
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.
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).
Comply with local medicines management requirements.
Information management
Analyse, interpret and present medicines data to highlight issues and risks to support decision making.
Medicines quality improvement
Undertake clinical audits of prescribing in areas directed by the GPs, feedback the results and implement changes in conjunction with the practice team.
Present audit findings to improve service delivery as appropriate.
Medicines Management
Implement changes to medicines that result from MHRA alerts, product withdrawal and other local and national guidance.
Monitor the wapping group 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).
Assist the wapping group practice in seeing and maintaining a practice formulary that is hosted on the practices computer system.
Auditing practices compliance against NICE technology assessment guidance
Care Quality Commission
Work with the general practice team to ensure the practice is compliant with CQC standards where medicines are involved.
Public health
To support public health campaigns.
To provide specialist knowledge on all public health programmes available to the general public.
Collaborative Working Relationships
Liaises with CCG colleagues including CCG Pharmacists on prescribing related matters to ensure consistency of patient care and benefit and interacts Heads of MOT to benefit from peer support.
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 ability to work as a member of a team
Foster and maintain strong links with all services across locality
Demonstrates ability to integrate general practice with community and hospital pharmacy teams
Liaises with other stakeholders as needed for the collective benefit of patients including but not limited to Patients, GP, nurses and other practice staff
Other healthcare professionals including PCN pharmacy technicians, social prescribers, physician associates, dentists, health and social care teams and dieticians etc.
Community nurses and other allied health professionals
Community and hospital pharmacy teams
Hospital staff with responsibilities for prescribing and medicines optimisation
Leadership:
Demonstrate understanding of the pharmacy role in governance and is able to implement this appropriately within the workplace.
Demonstrates ability to improve quality within limitations of service - Have basic knowledge of Quality Improvement (QI) Methodology.
Reviews yearly progress and develops clear plans to achieve results within priorities set by others.
Demonstrate ability to motivate self to achieve goals
Promotes diversity and equality in people management techniques and leads by example.
Management:
Demonstrate understanding of the implications of national priorities for the team and/or service
Demonstrate understanding of the process for effective resource utilisation
Demonstrate understanding of, and conforms to, relevant standards of practice Demonstrates ability to identify and resolve risk management issues according to policy/protocol
Follows professional and organisational policies/procedures relating to performance management
Demonstrate ability to extend boundaries of service delivery within the team
