PCN Clinical Pharmacist Maternity Cover - Hackney Downs PCN

Job responsibilities

Patient facing role undertaking face to face medications reviews for:

Anticoagulation patients

patients on complex polypharmacy with long term conditions

housebound patients

specific disease areas identified as a priority area within the PCN

Manage warfarin dosing using INR star and initiate DOACS (this will include an extended hours commitment once a week).

Review patients with single or multiple medical problems where medicine optimisation is required.

Review on-going need for each medicine, assess monitoring requirements and support patients to ensure treatment is safe, appropriate and optimised for maximum clinical benefit.

Discuss recommendations and outcomes with relevant members of the PCN team and provide appropriate and timely follow up.

Support patients to optimise medicines by providing additional written patient information leaflets, and liaise with community pharmacists about the need for special requirements to aid adherence.

Management of Common/Minor/Self-Limiting Ailments

Support practices in improving patient access for minor ailments and acute presentations.

Promote the importance of self-care and signpost patients to community pharmacies in line with national guidance on over the counter medicines.

Medicines Information to Practice Staff and Patients

Support relevant medicine-related enquiries from the practice team, PCN team, community pharmacists and patients.

Update practice teams at weekly meetings on current medicines related information and issues with a view to educating and improving prescribing within the practice.

Analyse, interpret and present medicines data to practice staff regularly to highlight prescribing issues.

Communicate recommended actions relating to medication and medical device safety alerts.

Medicines Reconciliation

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.

Commissioned improvements for QIPP and medicines optimisation

Support the practice and the PCN in delivering the outcomes as required in the medicines section of the Clinical Commissioning Contract

Signposting

Ensure that patients are referred to the appropriate healthcare professional for specialist referral, monitoring and/or referred to the social prescriber for further support services where required.

Repeat Prescribing

Review, implement and support adherence to the practice repeat prescribing policy.

Manage the repeat prescribing reauthorisation process by reviewing patient requests for repeat prescriptions and reviewing medicines reaching review dates and flagging up those patients needing a review.

Ensure patients on repeat prescriptions have the required monitoring and assessments undertaken as appropriate to their condition(s) and medicines prescribed.

Clinical Governance

Communicate, action and support implementation of MHRA alerts, product withdrawals and other local and national guidelines and formulary recommendations.

Undertake clinical audits in priority areas identified by the CCG medicines management team or within the PCN and feedback results to practices and the PCN and support them in implementing recommendations.

Support practices and PCNs in identifying and reporting onto NRLS any incidents relating to medicines. Be involved in investigating medicines incidents and identifying and implementing any required system improvements.

Support implementation of shared care protocols in practice, including processes to improve monitoring of high- risk drugs.

Review the use of medicines most commonly associated with unplanned hospital admissions and readmissions through audit and individual patient reviews.

Identify cohorts of patients at high risk of harm from medicines through pre-prepared practice computer searches e.g. using PINCER and other tools.

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

Education and Training

Contribute to the provision of education and training on medicines optimisation and specific therapeutic areas to healthcare professionals within the PCN and to the wider CCG geography.

Public Health

To support public health campaigns.

To provide specialist advice on all public health programmes available to the general public.

General

Undertake any other work supporting medicines optimisation in GP practices and the PCN commensurate with the banding of the post and which is agreed between the postholder and the manager

Qualifications

Essential

• Registered as a pharmacist with the General Pharmaceutical Council
• Masters degree in pharmacy (MPharm) (or equivalent)

Desirable

• Member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society
• A member of or working towards Faculty membership of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society
• Specialist knowledge acquired through post-graduate diploma level or equivalent training/experience
• Independent prescriber or working towards/intent of gaining independent prescribing qualification

Experience

Essential

• Minimum of 2 years postqualification experience
• A good understanding of general practice and primary care
• An appreciation of the nature of primary care prescribing and the importance of medicines optimisation and person centred care.
• Experience in managing anticoagulation patients managing warfarin dosing and initiating DOACS

Desirable

• In depth therapeutic and clinical knowledge and understanding of the principles of evidencebased healthcare
• Is able to plan, manage, monitor, advise and review general medicine optimisation issues in core areas for LTCs

Knowledge and Skills

Essential

• Excellent interpersonal, influencing and negotiating skills
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Demonstrate the ability to communicate complex and sensitive information in an understandable form to a variety of audiences (e.g. patients)
• Good IT skills
• Ability to obtain and analyse complex technical information
• Recognises priorities when problem solving and identifies deviations from the normal pattern and is able to refer to seniors or GPs when appropriate
• Ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines
• Produce timely and informative reports
• Work effectively independently and as a team member
• Demonstrates accountability for delivering professional expertise and direct service provision

Personal Qualities

Essential

• Self-Motivated, positive attitude, adaptable, self-aware and able to gain respect, trust and co-operation quickly
• Commitment to equality and diversity

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).