Clinical Pharmacist

Job responsibilities

The post holder will work within their clinical competencies as part of a multi-disciplinary team to provide expertise in clinical medicines management, provide face to face structured medication reviews, manage long term conditions, management of medicines on transfer of care and systems for safer prescribing, manage repeat prescription authorisations and reauthorisation, acute prescription request, while addressing both the public health and social care needs of patients in the GP practice(s) that make up the PCN.

The post holder will perform face to face medication review of patients with polypharmacy especially for older people, people in residential care homes and those with multiple co- morbidities. The post holder will provide leadership on quality improvement and clinical audit and well as managing some aspects of the Quality and Outcomes Framework.

This role is pivotal to improving the quality of care and operational efficiencies so requires motivation and passion to deliver an excellent service within general practice.

The post holder will be supported to develop their role to become a non-medical prescriber, if that qualification is not already held.

SPECIFIC 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 Review

Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for senior clinical pharmacist, nurses and/or GP 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 the senior clinical pharmacists, nurses and 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/self-limiting ailments

Managing caseload of patients with common/minor/self-limiting ailments while working within a scope of practice and limits of competence. Signposting to community pharmacy and referringto GPs or other healthcare professionals 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 a telephone help line for patients with questions, queries and concerns about their medicines.

10. 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 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

Answers 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. Providing 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 repeatprescriptions and reviewing medicines reaching review dates and flagging up those needing a review. Ensure patients have appropriate monitoring tests 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 to 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.

Auditing practices compliance against NICE technology assessment guidance. 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 the general practice teams to ensure the practices are compliant with CQC standards where medicines are involved.

21. Public health

To support public health campaigns. To provide specialist knowledge on all public health programmes available to the general public.

22. Collaborative working arrangements

Participates in the MDT.Liaises with CCG colleagues including CCG pharmacists on prescribing related matters to ensure consistency of patient care and benefit.Liaises with colleagues including CCG,STP/ICS Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians on prescribing related matters to ensure consistency of patient care and benefitLiaises with colleagues including CCG,STP/ICS Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians Heads of Medicines Management/Optimisation to benefit from peer support.Foster and maintain strong links with all services across the PCN and neighbouring networks. Explores the potential for collaborative working and takes opportunities to initiate andsustain such relationships.Liaises with other stakeholders as needed for the collective benefit of patients

Qualifications

Essential

• Completion of an undergraduate degree in pharmacy
• Enrolled on or willingness to complete the CPPE Primary Care Pharmacy Education Pathway

Desirable

• Hold or be working towards an independent prescribing qualification

Experience

Essential

• Minimum of two years experience as a pharmacist, demonstrated within a practice portfolio
• Experience and an awareness of the breadth of common acute and long-terms conditions that are likely to be seen in general practice
• Demonstrates ability to integrate general practice with community and hospital pharmacy teams community groups
• Experience of partnership/collaborative working and of building relationships across a variety of organisations

Professional Registration

Essential

• Mandatory registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council
• Membership Primary Care Pharmacy Association (PCPA)

Skills and knowledge

Essential

• In depth therapeutic and clinical knowledge and understanding of the principles of evidence-based healthcare
• Understanding of the wider determinants of health, including social, economic and environmental factors and their impact on communities
• An appreciation of the nature of primary care prescribing, concepts of rational prescribing and strategies for improving prescribing
• Knowledge of IT systems, including ability to use word processing skills, emails and the internet to create simple plans and reports
• Able to plan, manage, monitor and review general medicine optimisation issues in core areas for long term conditions
• Able to obtain and analyse complex technical information.
• Able to gain acceptance for recommendations and influence/motivate/persuade the audience to comply with the recommendations/agreed course of action where there may be significant barriers
• Able to identify and resolve risk management issues according to policy/protocol.
• Understand the principles of research governance
• Able to work under pressure and meet deadlines

Personal Qualities & Attributes

Essential

• Demonstrates accountability for delivering professional expertise and direct service provision
• Able to provide leadership and to finish work tasks
• Ability to maintain effective working relationships and to promote collaborative practice with all colleagues
• Demonstrates personal accountability, emotional resilience and works well under pressure
• Ability to organise, plan and prioritise on own initiative, including when under pressure and meeting deadlines
• High level of written and oral communication skills
• Ability to work flexibly and enthusiastically within a team or on own initiative
• Knowledge of and ability to work to policies and procedures, including confidentiality, safeguarding, lone working, information governance, and health and safety

Other

Essential

• Meets DBS reference standards, in line with the law on spent convictions
• Adaptable
• Self Motivation
• Safeguarding 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

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).