Clinical Pharmacist - Hyndburn Central PCN

Job responsibilities

• Clinical medication reviews for patients within the PCN with single or multiple long term conditions where medicines optimisation is required.

• To reconcile medicines following discharge from hospitals or intermediate care and working with patients and community pharmacists to ensure patients receive the medicines they need post-discharge and to reduce risk of readmission.

• To be involved in multidisciplinary clinical meetings within the PCN where appropriate.
• Work as part of a multi-disciplinary team in a patient facing role to clinically assess and treat patients using their expert knowledge of medicines for specific disease areas.
• Be a prescriber, or completing training to become prescribers, and work with and alongside the general practice team.
• Be responsible for the care management of patients with chronic diseases and undertake clinical medication reviews to proactively manage people with complex polypharmacy, especially older people, people in care homes, those with multiple co-morbidities (in particular frailty, COPD and asthma) and people with learning disabilities or autism (through STOMP Stop Over Medication Programme).
• Provide specialist expertise in the use of medicines whilst helping to address both the public health and social care needs of patients at the PCNs practice(s) and to help in tackling inequalities.
• 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.
• Through structured medication reviews, support patients to take their medications to get the best from them, reduce waste and promote selfcare.
• Have a leadership role in supporting further integration of general practice with the wider healthcare teams (including community and hospital pharmacy) to help improve patient outcomes, ensure better access to healthcare and help manage general practice workload.
• Develop relationships and work closely with other pharmacy professionals across PCNs and the wider health and social care system.
• Take a central role in the clinical aspects of shared care protocols, clinical research with medicines, liaison with specialist pharmacists (including mental health and reduction of inappropriate antipsychotic use in people with learning disabilities), liaison with community pharmacists and anticoagulation.

• Contribute to the provision of out of hours/on call/extended services for the practice and the patients. These can include patient facing and telephone consultations, signposting to other services and/or healthcare professionals where appropriate, while working within scope of practice and limits of competency.
• To manage repeat prescription requests, resolving queries where possible within scope of practice. To ensure patients have appropriate monitoring tests in place when required.

• Implement changes to medicines in line with MHRA alerts, product withdrawal or shortage and other local or national guidance.
• To maintain full and complete records of all patient contacts using appropriate clinical templates and coding.
• To undertake a proactive role in audit and quality improvement implementing recommendations where appropriate.
• Provide independent information to patients with regard to medicines and prescribing changes, initiating further support from other healthcare professionals where appropriate.
• Participate in review and setting of policies relating to medicines management and prescribing and help ensure practices prescribe in accordance with local guidelines and formulary.
• To identify areas of clinical risk at network level and make recommendations to support the introduction of new working practices that will optimise the quality of prescribing and make more efficient use of network resources.
• To monitor network practices prescribing against the local health economy and make recommendations for GPs or amend within scope of practice, based on findings.
• To maintain own clinical and professional competence and be responsible for own continuous professional development.
• Work with practices to ensure full compliance with Care Quality Commission standards for safe and effective care.

Professional Registration

Essential

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

Experience

Essential

• Minimum of two years experience as a pharmacist, demonstrated within a practice portfolio.
• Experience in a Primary Care setting.
• 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 team's community groups.
• Experience of partnership/collaborative working and of building relationships across a variety of organisations.

Qualifications

Essential

• Completion of an undergraduate degree in pharmacy.
• Completion of CPPE Primary Care Pharmacy Education Pathway.

Desirable

• Hold or be working towards an independent prescribing qualification

Knowledge and Skills

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.

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 Motivated
• Safeguarding and other mandatory training
• Occupational Health vaccinations
• 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).