Primary Care Prescribing Pharmacist

Job responsibilities

Key duties and responsibilities

1. Clinical assessments and Care Home MDT

Managing patients with common/minor/self-limiting ailments while working within a scope of practice and limits of competence. Referring to the PCN Care Home GP Lead or other healthcare professionals where appropriate. Engaging in a weekly MDT meeting, escalating any patients as necessary within an appropriate time frame.

2. Patient facing Long-term condition consultations

See, where appropriate, patients residing in Care Homes with single or multiple medical problems where medicine optimisation is required e.g. Respiratory, Cardiovascular and Diabetes. 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 GPs for medicine improvement.

3. Patient facing Care Home Medication Reviews

Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for the nurses or GPs on prescribing and monitoring. Work with care home staff to improve safety of medicines ordering and administration.

4. 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.

5. 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 high-risk patient groups.

6. Telephone/email medicines support

Provide telephone or email support for care home staff with questions, queries and concerns about residents medicines.

7. 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 care homes 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

8. Medicine information to practice and care home staff

Answers relevant medicine-related enquiries from GPs, other network staff, other healthcare teams e.g. community pharmacy and care home staff with queries about medicines. Suggesting and recommending solutions. Providing follow up for patients to monitor the effect of any changes.

9. 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 or minor ailments, acute conditions, long term condition reviews etc.

10. Repeat prescribing

Ensure an efficient repeat prescribing policy for Care Home patients is in place and adhered to. 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.

11. 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.

12. Information management

Analyse, interpret and present medicines data to highlight issues and risks to support decision making.

13. Medicines quality improvement

Undertake clinical audits of prescribing in areas directed by the GPs, feedback the results and implement changes in conjunction with the relevant practice team.

14. Medicines safety

Implement changes to medicines that result from MHRA alerts, product withdrawal and other local and national guidance.

15. 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 i.e. red drugs or subject to shared care. Assist practices in seeing and maintaining a practice formulary that is hosted on each practices computer system. Auditing practices compliance against NICE technology assessment guidance. Provide newsletters or bulletins on important prescribing messages.

16. Education and Training

Provide education and training to primary healthcare team on therapeutics and medicines optimisation.

17. Care Quality Commission

Work with the general practice team to ensure the practice is compliant with CQC standards where medicines are involved.

18. Public health

To support public health campaigns. To provide specialist knowledge on all public health programmes available to the general public.

19. Collaborative working arrangements

Participates in the PCN Care Home MDT.

Liaises with ICB colleagues including ICB pharmacists on prescribing related matters to ensure consistency of patient care and benefit.

Liaises with colleagues including ICB Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians on prescribing related matters to ensure consistency of patient care and benefit

Liaises with colleagues including ICB Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians Heads of Medicines Management and Optimisation to benefit from peer support.

Foster and maintain strong links with all services across the PCN and neighbouring networks. Explores the potential for collaborative working and takes opportunities to initiate and sustain such relationships.

Liaises with other stakeholders as needed for the collective benefit of patients Including but not limited to

1. Patients and their representatives

2. GP, nurses and other practice staff

3. Social prescribers, first contact physiotherapists and paramedics.

4. Community pharmacists and support staff

5. Other members of the medicines management team including pharmacists, Pharmacy Technicians and Dieticians

6. Locality or GP prescribing lead

7. Locality managers

8. Community nurses and other allied health professionals

9. Hospital staff with responsibilities for prescribing and medicines optimisation

20. Participation in meetings

Participate and engage in monthly pharmacy team meeting to discuss workload, highlight any issues, adapt any learning from team members or Prescribing Lead, identify, plan and update any targets, and any other role relevant meetings as needed.

21. IIF

Work towards any Pharmacy related IIF targets. Work with team members and Prescribing Lead to develop and implement plans to achieve IIF targets and update PCN accordingly.

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.

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 may vary from time to time, without changing the general character of the post or the level of responsibility.

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

Qualifications

Essential

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

Desirable

• Clinical Diploma

Knowledge, skills and qualities

Essential

• Mandatory registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council
• In depth therapeutic and clinical knowledge and understanding of
• the principles of evidence-based healthcare
• 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
• 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
• Demonstrates use of appropriate communication to gain the cooperation of relevant stakeholders (including patients, senior and peer colleagues, and other professionals, other NHS/private organisations, e.g. CCGs)
• Is able to recognise personal limitations and refer to more appropriate colleague(s) when necessary
• Ability to identify risk and assess/manage risk when working with individuals
• Able to work under pressure and meet deadlines
• Able to provide leadership and to finish work tasks
• Ability to maintain effective working relationships and to promote collaborative practice with all colleagues
• Demonstrates personal accountability, emotional resilience and works well under pressure
• Ability 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
• Meets DBS reference standards and has a clear criminal record, in line with the law on spent convictions
• Self Motivation
• Safeguarding and other mandatory training
• Immunisation status
• Access to own transport and ability to travel across the locality on a regular basis, including to visit care homes

Desirable

• Demonstrates accountability for delivering professional expertise and direct service provision
• Membership Primary Care Pharmacy Association (PCPA)
• Membership of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society
• Able to plan, manage, monitor and review general medicine optimisation issues in core areas for long term conditions
• Adaptable

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).