Clinical Pharmacist

Job description

Job responsibilities

As a Clinical Pharmacist you will be responsible for improving medicines optimisation in primary care. You will work across several practice sites to become a core member of the teams of healthcare professionals’ delivery high quality services for SSP Health.

You will work as part of a medicines management team within SSP Health advising and supporting SSP Health practices on prescribing issues; promoting high quality, safe and effective prescribing informed by the evidence base and national and local guidance.

You will be responsible for the quality of repeat prescriptions, medication reviews, post discharge medicines reconciliation, drug monitoring, clinical audits and enabling CQC requirements for medicines use to be met. Pharmacist prescribers will spend a proportion of their time delivering the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) for practices.

You will negotiate changes in prescribing behaviour and influence opinions on prescribing issues.

1. Job Purpose

The key outcome of this post will be improved care and health outcomes for patients in General Practice.

This will be achieved by:

· Reducing GP workload to free up GP capacity to enable and contribute to the delivery of high quality medical services from your practices

· Supporting and promoting continuity of care. Supporting patients to self-manage their wellbeing and long term conditions

· Optimising medicines ensuring evidence based prescribing and cost-effective use of resources

· Reducing medicines related hospital admissions and re-admissions

· Undertaking clinical medication reviews

· Undertaking medicines reconciliation following hospital discharge

· Supporting practices to deliver the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) and electronic Repeat Dispensing (eRD)

· Improving communication and medicines reconciliation across care interfaces

· Improving medicines safety by ensuring medication on repeat prescription is appropriately prescribed and monitored

· Improving medicines adherence through shared decision making

· Reducing medicines waste

2. Main Duties and Responsibilities:

· Provide clinical medicines review, making necessary changes as an independent prescriber or discussing recommendations with GPs to ensure agreement for recommended prescribing changes resulting in rationalisation of the patient’s medication and improved patient outcomes by.

· improving patient safety

· reducing inappropriate poly-pharmacy

· improving medicines adherence through shared decision making

· implementing shared decision making

· improving cost-effective evidence based prescribing

· reducing waste

· Contribute to reductions in medication related hospital admissions and re-admissions by supporting patients and their carers, to get the best outcomes from their medication and identifying and addressing medicines related issues.

· Advise, support and contribute the medicines management of patients with chronic diseases and undertake clinical medication reviews to proactively manage people with complex poly-pharmacy, especially the elderly, people in care homes, those with multiple long term conditions (in particular COPD and asthma) and people with learning disabilities or autism (through STOMP - Stop Over Medication Programme).

· Make professional decisions where appropriate and take responsibility for them. Work within own competence and professional standards of conduct, ethics and performance at all times.

· Improve communication and medicines reconciliation across care interfaces including the wider primary care workforce, secondary care, social care and domiciliary environments). Particularly ensuring medicines reconciliation following hospital discharge, working with patients, carers and community pharmacies to ensure patients receive the medicines and follow-up they need post discharge.

· Provide a holistic approach to the use and understanding of medicines by patients that includes step up and step down management required in long term conditions or end of life.

· Signpost patients to appropriate services and other healthcare professionals.

· Undertake high risk drug monitoring and make recommendations

· Implement and monitor adherence to MHRA alerts

· Respond to and document clinical and pharmaceutical queries from practice clinicians, patients and carers relating to prescribing and dispensing of medication, which may be of an urgent and unpredictable nature.

· Support Practices to deliver the local NHS Integrated Care System (ICS) medicines optimisation agenda,

· Assist practices in achieving QOF and any local prescribing schemes e.g., ICS and the local Primary Care Network if appropriate

· Review the receipt and respond to Shared Care Medicines requests from secondary care

· Achieve compliance with CQC standards related to medicines

· Actively participate in practice clinical governance arrangements identifying any relevant medicines and prescribing issues.

· Support SSP Health and practices staff in the development of protocols and procedures relating to medicines including implementing and monitoring safety alerts and management of repeat prescribing systems to improve patient safety and efficiency

· Take an active role in practice meetings when invited to do so

· Plan, manage and prioritise own workload ensuring any deadlines are met. Ensuring that relevant activity and outcome data is recorded and reported in an accurate and timely fashion to support practice reporting systems.

· Proactively develop good working relationships with clinical and non-clinical staff in SSP Health practices, local NHS providers, including local Trusts, and all relevant stakeholders.

· Keep knowledge up to date in line with professional responsibilities and CPD requirements, for example development through researching best practice, networking with colleagues and seeking training opportunities and support/clinical supervision sessions.

Appointed Clinical Pharmacists will:

· Be able to work independently to achieve objectives with tailored supervision.

· Participate in regular 1:1 and group supervision sessions

Participate in professional and multi-professional training and development activities

Person Specification

Experience

Essential

• Min 2 years post qualification experience

Desirable

• Experience of working in a similar role before

Qualifications

Essential

• Mandatory registration with General Pharmaceutical Council.
• Specialist knowledge acquired through post-graduate diploma level or of equivalent training/expertise
• An appreciation of the nature of GP practices In-depth therapeutic and clinical knowledge and understanding of the principles of evidence-based healthcare
• Safe prescribing and current issues with medicines safety
• Care Quality Commission standards for medicines use and prescribing
• Min 2 years post qualification experience

Desirable

• Member of or working towards Faculty Membership of Royal Pharmaceutical Society
• Master's degree in Pharmacy (MPharm) or equivalent
• Independent prescriber or working towards/intent of gaining independent prescribing qualification
• Understanding of the nature of primary care prescribing, key issues and strategies for improving prescribing.

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).

Employer details

Employer name

SSP Health

Address

120 Wigan Road

Ashton in Makerfield

Wigan

WN4 9SU

Employer's website

https://www.ssphealth.com/ (Opens in a new tab)