Job responsibilities
Purpose of the role: 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.
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 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 referring
to 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 repeat
prescriptions 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 managementAnalyse, 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 economy’s 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 practice’s 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 PCN 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 benefit
Liaises 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 and
sustain such relationships.
Liaises with other stakeholders as needed for the collective benefit of patients
Including but not limited to
1. Patients and their representatives
2. GP, nurses and other practice staff
3. Social prescribers, first contact physiotherapists, physicians associates and
paramedics.
4. Community pharmacists and support staff
5. Other members of the medicines management (MM) team including pharmacists,
Pharmacy Technicians and Dieticians
6. Locality / GP prescribing lead
7. Locality managers
8. Community nurses and other allied health professionals
9. Hospital staff with responsibilities for prescribing and medicines optimisation
