Job responsibilities
Medicine information to PCN, practice staff and patients
Answer medicine related enquiries from PCN, GPs &
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.
Patient facing clinical medication review
Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients with
multimorbidity and polypharmacy and implement own prescribing changes (as an
independent prescriber) and order relevant monitoring tests.
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).
Patient facing medicines support
Provide patient facing clinics for those with questions,
queries and concerns about their medicines in the practice as appropriate and
with safety in mind during the pandemic.
Telephone medicines support
Provide a telephone help line for patients with questions,
queries and concerns about their medicines.
Patient facing care home/residential clinical medication
reviews
Manage own caseload of care home residents. Undertake
clinical medication reviews with patients with multimorbidity and polypharmacy
and implement own prescribing changes (as an independent prescriber) and order
relevant monitoring tests.
Work with care home staff to improve safety of medicines
ordering and administration.
Patient facing domiciliary/home visits
Manage own caseload of vulnerable housebound patients at
risk of hospital admission and harm from poor use of medicines.
Implement own prescribing changes (as an independent
prescriber) and ordering of monitoring tests when appropriately qualified to do
so.
Attend and refer patients to multidisciplinary case
conferences. Identifying key areas of need for vulnerable patients and
formulating care plans.
Service development
To work with the SCP and team to develop and manage new
services across the PCN that are built around new medicines or NICE guidance,
where new medicine/recommendations allow the development of a new care pathway
(e.g. new oral anticoagulants for stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation).
Risk stratification
Assist with design, development and implementation of
computer searches to identify cohorts of patients at high risk of harm from
medicines across the PCN.
Assist the SCP with the management of risk stratification
tools on behalf of the PCN.
Work with patients, SCP and CPs across the PCN and primary
care teams to minimise risks through medicines optimisation.
Information management
To assist SCP and CP team to analyse, interpret and present
medicines and risks to support decision-making across the PCN. Use of data to
highlight issues.
Medicines Quality Improvement programmes
Work with the SCP and CP team to identify and provide
support on areas of prescribing and medicines optimisation, including QOF and
QI requirements.
Conduct appropriate clinical audits and projects or work
with colleagues such as SCP, CPs, GP registrars, and practice managers across
the PCN etc.
Present results and provide leadership on suggested changes.
Assist CP team to contribute to national and local research initiatives.
Care Quality Commission
Assist SCP and CP team provide leadership to the general
practice team to ensure the practice is compliant with CQC standards where
medicines are involved.
Undertake appropriate risk assessments and management and
ensure compliance with medicines legislation.
Implementation of local and national guidelines and
formulary recommendations
Assist with monitoring practice prescribing against the
local health economys RAG list for medicines that should be prescribed by
hospital doctors (red drugs) or subject to shared care (amber drugs).
Liaise directly with hospital colleagues where prescribing
needs to be returned to specialists. Assist practices in setting and
maintaining a practice formulary that is hosted on the practices computer
system.
Work with SCP and CP team to suggest and develop computer
decision support tools to help remind prescribers about the agreed formulary
choice and local recommendations.
Assist SCP and CP team with auditing at both practice and
PCN level compliance against NICE technology assessment guidance. Provide
updates on PCN intranet on important prescribing messages to improve
prescribers knowledge and work with the team to develop and implement other
techniques known to influence implementation of evidence such as audit and
feedback.
Supervision
Work with SCP to ensure that PCN Pharmacy Technicians also
receive appropriate supervision, mentoring, appraisal process and access to
relevant training & development programmes.
Education and Training
Assist SCP and CP team provide education and training to
primary healthcare teams across the PCN on therapeutics and medicines
optimisation.
Assist with providing training to visiting medical, nursing,
pharmacy and other healthcare students where appropriate.
Public health
To assist SCP and CP team with supporting public health
campaigns across the PCN.
To assist SCP and CP team with providing specialist
knowledge on all public health programmes available to general public across
the PCN.
Unplanned hospital admissions
Devise and implement practice searches to identify cohorts
of patients most likely to be at risk of an unplanned admission and
readmissions from medicines.
Work with case managers, multidisciplinary (health and
social care) review teams, hospital colleagues and virtual ward teams to manage
medicines-related risk for readmission and patient harm.
Put in place changes to reduce the prescribing of these
medicines to high-risk 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 manage these changes without referral to a GP.
Perform a clinical medication review, produce a post
discharge medicines care plan including dose titration and booking of follow up
tests and working with patients and community pharmacists to ensure patients
receive the medicines they need post discharge 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).
Work in partnership with hospital colleagues (e.g. care of
the elderly doctors and clinical pharmacists) to proactively manage patients at
high risk of medicine related problems before they are discharged to ensure
continuity of care.
Telephone triage
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 test results, common/minor ailments, acute
conditions, long term condition reviews etc.
Other information
While we are happy to consider flexible working, PCNs need
to provide patients with enhanced access and you may therefore on occasion be
required to work weekday evenings 18:30 20:00.