North Care Network PCN Clinical Pharmacist Prescribing

Job description

Job responsibilities

Key Responsibilities

Patient-Facing Clinical Medication Review

Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients and work within your scope of practice as a non-medical prescriber to implement any necessary changes reviews could be cohort based, in care homes, polypharmacy or any other area required by the PCN, within the pharmacists competence. Home visits may be required.

To lead and coordinate medicines optimisation services and clinical pharmacy development within the PCN to improve quality of care, personalised care and patient experience. Provide clinical leadership to ensure high quality and cost effective prescribing.

Medicines Quality Improvement

Undertake clinical audits of prescribing in areas identified by yourself and agreed by the PCN or as directed by the PCN, feedback the results and implement changes in conjunction with the relevant practice team.

Identify cohorts of patients at high risk of harm from medicines through computer searches. This might include risks that are patient related, medicine related, or both. Put in place changes to reduce the prescribing of these medicines to high-risk patient groups.

Identify, plan, organise, and co-ordinate the implementation of medicines optimisation initiatives, objectives and complex changes at GP practice and PCN level to bring about quality improvements in prescribing behaviour and better outcomes for patients including reducing patient harm and improving medication safety. Lead the development and implementation of new medicines optimisation initiatives and services within the PCN, community pharmacies and community providers. This includes the development of prescribing / medicines optimisation guidelines and protocols.

Medicines Safety

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

Provide specialised advice and support in risk management and clinical governance issues and ensure compliance with medicines legislation, patient safety advisory notices and other established good practices to manage and minimise risk. This may include supporting the dispensary teams within each practice.

Leadership and Management

As a Senior PCN Clinical Pharmacist you will be expected to contribute to the leadership of medicines-related issues for North Care Network, and to provide leadership and mentoring to any clinical pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and dispensary staff employed across the PCN.

Provide leadership in supporting further integration of general practice with wider healthcare systems (including hospital and community pharmacy) to help improve patient outcomes, ensure better access to healthcare and help manage general practice workload.

Provide leadership on person centred medicines optimisation (including ensuring prescribers in the practice conserve antibiotics in line with local antimicrobial stewardship guidance) and quality improvement, whilst contributing to the quality and outcomes framework and enhanced services.

Demonstrate understanding of governance and be able to implement this appropriately within the workplace.

Demonstrate understanding of, and contribute to, the workplace vision.

Demonstrate ability to improve quality within limitations of service.

Review progress yearly and develop clear plans to achieve results within priorities set by others.

Demonstrate ability to motivate self to achieve goals.

Demonstrate ability to provide support to other clinical pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and dispensary staff.

Demonstrate understanding of the implications of national priorities for thePCN.

Demonstrate understanding of the process for effective resource utilisation.

Demonstrate understanding of, and conform to, relevant standards of practice.

Demonstrate ability to identify and resolve risk management issues according to policy/protocol.

Follow professional and organisational policies/procedures relating to performance management.

Demonstrate ability to extend boundaries of service delivery within the team.

Mentor a team of differing abilities.

Work autonomously with significant discretion and work collaboratively with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders.

Management of Common/Minor/Self-Limiting Ailments

Manage a caseload of patients with common/minor/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 professionals where appropriate.

Patient-Facing Medicines Support

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

Analyse and interpret complex information and communicate this information using a variety of methods to patients carers and other health professionals to promote the safe, high quality and cost-effective use of medicines in all prescribing decisions.

Management of Medicines at Change of Care Setting

Reconcile medicines following discharge from hospital or admission to intermediate care or 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).

Medicine Information to Practice Staff and Patients

Answer relevant medicine-related enquiries from network staff along with external healthcare teams (e.g. community pharmacy) and patients with queries about medicines. Suggest and recommend solutions. Provide follow up when necessary to monitor the effect of any changes.

Drug Monitoring

Ensure robust systems are in place for drug monitoring at each practice across the PCN, streamlining these where beneficial.

Repeat Prescribing

Ensure each practice in the PCN has a robust repeat prescribing policy, and streamline these across the PCN where beneficial. You may be asked to contribute to the repeat prescribing reauthorisation process by reviewing patient requests for repeat prescriptions and reviewing medicines reaching review dates.

Ensure patients have appropriate monitoring in place when required.

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).

Support prescribers and practices to both maintain financial balance within their allocated prescribing budgets and ensure financial viability of the dispensaries.

Information Management

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

Produce timely reports and papers, updating databases on benefits/outcomes of services, using relevant appropriate IT packages where required including excel, project management tools. This should be carried out to agreed criteria and plans developed for correcting mitigating circumstances if targets not achieved.

Attend and contribute to practice, PCN and CCG Clinical Meetings when relevant.

Liaise with prescribing colleagues across North Lincolnshire in primary and secondary care to ensure consistency with local prescribing strategies including working with secondary care to reduce the impact of inappropriate secondary care influenced prescribing.

Location of Work

The postholder will work within the PCN’s practices and at times in other locations within the PCN’s boundary and its surrounding areas.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Professional knowledge acquired through degree in pharmacy plus 1 year pre-registration training.
• Extensive knowledge of medicines optimisation, acquired through post graduate clinical pharmacy diploma or equivalent experience or training.
• Holds an independent prescribing qualification.

Desirable

• Postgraduate diploma in clinical pharmacy
• Successful completion of the CPPE General Practice Pharmacist Training Pathway.
• Willingness to undertake further study toward gaining independent prescribing qualification.

Experience

Essential

• Demonstrates an understanding of, and conforms to, relevant standards of practice.
• Follows professional and organisational policies/procedures relating to performance management.
• Experience and an awareness of the breath of common acute and long-term conditions that are likely to be seen in general practice.
• Demonstrates ability to integrate general practice with community and hospital pharmacy teams and community groups
• Experience of partnership/collaborative working and of building relationships across a variety of organisations
• Able to provide and receive highly complex/contentious optimisation/therapeutic information to a multi-professional audience.
• Able to analyse and interpret complex prescribing information.
• Experience of communicating and engaging effectively with external agencies/stakeholder.
• Evidence of significant personal development, professionally and managerially

Personal Qualities and Attributes

Essential

• Commitment to reducing health inequalities and proactively working to reach people from all communities.
• Demonstrates use of appropriate communication to gain the co-operation of relevant stakeholders (including patients, senior and peer colleagues, and other professionals, other NHS/private organisations, e.g. CCGs).
• Is able to recognise personal limitations and refer to more appropriate colleague(s) when necessary.
• Ability to identify risk and assess/manage risk when working with individuals.
• Able to work under pressure and meet deadlines.
• 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.
• Demonstrates leadership experience and previous experience of supervising more junior staff.
• Excellent interpersonal, influencing and negotiating skills.

Desirable

• Demonstrates accountability for delivering professional expertise and direct service provision.

Knowledge and skills

Essential

• Demonstrates the ability to communicate complex and sensitive information in an understandable form to a variety of audiences.
• 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 think analytically; anticipating obstacles and thinking ahead; using analytical techniques to identify several solutions.
• Able to effectively manage resources (financial and others) to ensure delivery of a service/project.
• 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 plan complex medicines management projects and programmes.
• Able to identify and resolve risk management issues according to policy/protocol.
• Adaptable
• Works effectively independently and as a team player
• Self-motivated
• Safeguarding and other mandatory training

Professional Registration

Essential

• Mandatory registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council.

Drives

Essential

• Drives and has access to a vehicle to conduct the duties of the role.

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

Yorkshire Health Partners Ltd

Address

Central Surgery

King Street

Barton-upon-humber

DN185ER

Employer's website

https://yorkshirehealthpartners.co.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)