Clinical Pharmacist

Job responsibilities

Key relationships:

The patients, doctors, prescribers and practice teams within the Primary Care Network

Somerset ICB Practice Support Pharmacists and Medicines Management Team

Local Community Pharmacists

Other professionals, other NHS/private organisations e.g. ICB and the general public

Key duties and responsibilities

1. Patient Facing Long Term Condition Clinics

See (where appropriate) patients 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 Senior Pharmacists or GPs for medicine improvement.

2. Patient Facing Clinical Medication Reviews

Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for senior clinical pharmacist, nurses and/or GPs on prescribing and monitoring.

3. Patient Facing Care Home Medication Reviews

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

4. Patient Facing Domiciliary Clinical Medication Reviews

Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for senior clinical pharmacist, nurses and/or GPs on prescribing and monitoring. Attend and refer patients to multidisciplinary case conferences.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. Management of common, minor and self-limiting ailments

Manage a caseload of patients with common, minor or 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 professional where appropriate.

8. Patient facing medicines support

Provide patient facing clinics for those with questions, queries and concerns about their medicines in the practice.

9. Telephone medicines support

Provide telephone support for patients with questions, queries and concerns about their medicines.

10. Management of medicines at discharge from hospital

Reconcile medicines following discharge from hospital, 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 (e.g. those with medicine compliance aids or those in care homes).

11. Medicine information to practice staff and patients

Answer relevant medicine-related enquiries from GPs, other network staff, other healthcare teams (e.g. community pharmacy) and patients with queries about medicines, suggesting and recommending solutions. Provide follow up for patients to monitor the effect of any changes.

12. 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.

13. Repeat prescribing

Produce and implement a repeat prescribing policy within each PCN practice. 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 rests in place when required.

14. 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).

15. Information management

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

16. 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.

17. Medicines safety

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

18. Implementation of local and national guidelines and formulary recommendations

Monitor practice prescribing against the local health economys RAG list and make recommendations for GPs for medicines that should be prescribed by hospital doctors (red drugs) or subject to shared care (amber drugs). Assist practices in seeing and maintaining a practice formulary that is hosted on each practices computer system. Provide newsletters or bulletins on important prescribing messages.

19. Education and training

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

20. Care Quality Commission

Work with general practice teams to ensure practices are compliant with CQC standards where medicines are involved.

21. Public health

Support public health campaigns. Provide specialist knowledge on all public health programmes available to the general public.

22. Collaborative working arrangements

Participate in the Primary Care Network multi-disciplinary team.

Liaise with colleagues including ICB, STP/ICS Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians on prescribing related matters to ensure consistency of patient care and benefit.

Liaise with colleagues including ICB, STP/ICS Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians, Heads of Medicines Management/Optimisation to benefit from peer support.

Foster and maintain strong lings with all services across the PCN and neighbouring networks.

Explores the potential for collaborative working and takes opportunities to initiate and sustain such relationships.

Liaise with other stakeholders as needed for the collective benefit of patients, including but not limited to:

Patients and their representatives

GPs, nurses and other practice staff

Social prescribers, first contact physiotherapists, physicians associates and paramedics

Community pharmacists and support staff

Other members of the Medicines Management team including Pharmacists, Pharmacy Technicians and Dieticians

Locality / GP Prescribing Lead

Locality managers

Community nurses and other allied health professionals

Hospital staff with responsibilities for prescribing and medicines optimisation

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 may 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.

Other

Essential

• Meet DBS reference standards and has a clear criminal record, in line with law on spent convictions.
• Adaptable and self-motivated
• Safeguarding Level 3 and other mandatory training
• Immunisation status
• Access to own transport and ability to travel across the locality on a regular basis, including to visit people in their own homes
• Participate in the provision of Extended Hours outside of core practice hours.

Qualifications

Essential

• Mandatory registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council
• Completion of an Undergraduate degree in pharmacy, MPharm or equivalent
• Demonstrates an understanding of, and conforms to, relevant standards of practice
• Follows professional and organisational policies and procedures relating to performance management
• Completed or prepared to undertake Primary Care Pharmacy Education Pathway, PCPEP

Desirable

• Independent prescriber or working towards it.
• Intent of gaining independent prescribing qualification
• Clinical Diploma
• Membership of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society
• Membership of the Primary Care Pharmacy Association (PCPA)

Experience

Essential

• Experience and an awareness of the breadth of common acute and long-term conditions that are likely to be seen in general practice
• Demonstrates ability to integrate general practice within community and hospital pharmacy teams community groups
• Experience of partnership and collaborative working and of building relationships across a variety of organisations
• An appreciation of the nature of GPs and general practices
• An appreciation of the nature of primary care prescribing, concepts of rational prescribing and strategies for improving prescribing
• Understanding of the wider determinants of health, including social, economic and environmental factors and their impact on communities
• Knowledge of IT systems, including the ability to use word processing skills, emails and the internet to create simple plans and reports.
• Able to obtain and analyse complex technical information
• Able to gain acceptance for recommendations and influence, motivate and persuade the audience to comply with the recommendations or agreed course of action where there may be significant barriers
• Able to identify and resolve risk management issues according to policy or protocol

Desirable

• Minimum of 2 years experience as a pharmacist, demonstrated within a practice portfolio
• In depth therapeutic and clinical knowledge and understanding of the principles of evidence-based healthcare.
• Able to plan, manage, monitor and review general medicine optimisation issues in core areas for long term conditions
• Familiarity with EMIS Clinical System
• Familiarity with Somerset ICB prescribing formularies

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).