Job responsibilities
The post holder
acts within their professional boundaries.
The post holder
will work as part of a multi-disciplinary team in a patient-facing role. The
post holder will take responsibility for areas of chronic disease management
within the practice and undertake clinical medication reviews to proactively
manage patients with complex polypharmacy, especially for older people, people
in residential care homes and those with multiple co-morbidities.
The post holder
will provide primary support to general practice staff with regards to
prescription and medication queries. They will help support the repeat
prescriptions system, deal with acute prescription requests, medicines
reconciliation on transfer of care and systems for safer prescribing, providing
expertise in clinical medicines advice while addressing both public and social
care needs of patient in the GP practice (s).
The post holder
will provide clinical leadership on medicines optimisation and quality
improvement and manage some aspects of the quality and outcomes framework and
enhanced services.
The post holder
will ensure that the practice integrates with community and hospital pharmacy
to help utilise skill mix, improve patient outcomes, ensure better access to
healthcare and help manage workload. The role is pivotal to improving the
quality of care and operational efficiencies so requires motivation and passion
to deliver excellent service within general practice.
KEY
TASKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES
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)
Delivering
pharmacy related aspects of the Network DES/LES such as conducting structured
medication reviews (SMRs
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. Undertake clinical medication reviews with
patients and produce recommendations for senior clinical pharmacist, nurses
and/or GP on prescribing and monitoring.
Management
of common/minor/self-limiting ailments manage caseload of patients with
common/minor/self-limiting ailments while working within a scope of practice
and limits of competence.
Signpost
to community pharmacy and refer to GPs or other healthcare professionals where
appropriate.
Patient
facing medicines support.
Provide
patient facing clinics for those with medicines queries.
Telephone
medicines support.
Answer
relevant medicine-related enquiries from GPs, other practice staff, other
healthcare teams (e.g. community pharmacy) and patients with queries about
medicines. Suggest and recommend solutions.
Provide
follow up for patients to monitor the effect of any changes.
Identify
medications associated with harm or unplanned hospital admissions through
audits or reviewing discharge summaries, and be able to proactively optimise
their therapy and prevent harm
Recommend
changes to the prescribing of high risk medications, especially to high risk
patient groups
Management
of medicines at discharge from hospital.
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. Ensure continuity of medicines supply post
discharge
Signposting
- ensure patients are referred to the appropriate healthcare professional for
the appropriate level of care within an appropriate period of time.
Assist
with the development of a repeat prescribing process at the practice
Assist
in managing 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.
Identify
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.
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 as directed by
the GPs, practice manager or Senior Clinical Pharmacist and feedback results
and implement changes in conjunction with the practice team.
Medicines
safety: Implement changes to medicines that result from MHRA alerts, product
withdrawal and other local and national guidance.
Implementation
of local and national guidelines and the local formulary.
Monitor
practice prescribing against the local health economies. Make recommendations
to GPs for medicines that should be prescribed by hospital doctors (red drugs)
or subject to shared care.
Assist
the practices with keeping them up to date on how to access the local
formulary. Auditing practices compliance against NICE technology assessment
guidance. Provide newsletters or bulletins on important prescribing messages.
Education
and Training Provide education and training to primary healthcare team on
therapeutics and medicines optimisation.
Care
Quality Commission (CQC) work with the general practice team to ensure the
practice is compliant with CQC standards where medicines are involved.
Provide
knowledge on all public health programmes available where applicable.
Recognises
the roles of other health and social care colleagues and develops and maintains
effective working relationships within them. Liaises effectively with other
allied healthcare professional stakeholders as needed for the collective
benefit of patients.
Recognises
personal limitations and refer to more appropriate colleagues when necessary.
Demonstrates
ability to work collaboratively with community and hospital pharmacy teams.
Liaises
with ICB Pharmacists and Medicines Management team on prescribing related
matters and to benefit from peer support.
Demonstrates
understanding of the pharmacy role in governance and is able to implement this
appropriately within the workplace.
Engages
with Patient Participation Groups (PPGs) and involves PPGs in development of
the role.
Demonstrates
ability to improve quality within limitations of service.
Reviews
yearly progress and develops clear plans to achieve results within priorities
set by others.
Promotes
diversity and equality in people management techniques and leads by example.
Management:
Demonstrates understanding of effective resource utilisation and the
implications of national priorities for the team and service.
Demonstrates
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.
Demonstrates
ability to extend boundaries of service delivery within the team.
KEY WORKING
RELATIONSHIPS
The
post holder will be required to:
Maintain
constructive relationships with a broad range of internal and external
stakeholders, including:
General
Practice
Participate
in relevant internal and external working groups/projects, services, and
initiatives which develop the role and the service.
Registration
Mandatory
registration with General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)
Education
/ Training / Qualifications
Masters
degree in pharmacy (MPharm) (or equivalent)
Has
completed 18 month CPPE pathway (or equivalent) or actively working towards
Independent
prescriber (or actively working towards)
Knowledge
and Experience
Prior
GP/clinical pharmacy experience
Competent
with specialist in-depth knowledge for multiple chronic disease areas, with
ability to consult and independently prescribe
Skills
/ Abilities
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
Uses
skills in a range of routine situations requiring analysis or comparison of a
range of options.
Recognises
priorities when problem-solving and identifies deviations from normal pattern
and is able to refer to seniors or GPs when appropriate.
Able
to follow legal, ethical, professional and organisational policies/procedures
and codes of conduct
Involves
patients in decisions about prescribed medicines and supporting adherence as
per NICE guidelines