Senior Pharmacist

Job description

Job responsibilities

Professional role

Provide expert pharmaceutical support and advice to community-based services, including the care coordination team, the virtual ward, hospital in-reach teams and the Covid Medicines Delivery Unit (CMDU).

Act as a clinical role model and motivate all staff in the provision of a high standard of clinical pharmacy services to the Directorate.

Be an integral member of the care coordination, virtual ward and anticoagulation multidisciplinary teams and the wider Community Services team.

Act as an independent prescriber and promote and encourage all pharmacist non-medical prescribers to act in a prescribing role within their clinical areas.

Attend ward rounds, including those conducted virtually. This will include medicines reconciliation, formulating the patients pharmaceutical care plan, making proactive interventions in individual patients therapy by providing evidence-based information on medicines related issues, prescribing, and acting as the main Pharmacy contact.

Be part of the team delivering the enhanced care coordination service. This will include receiving referrals, triage, clinical assessment, virtual consultations, formulation of a care plan and package of care, prescribing and referral to other care agencies.

Proactively support the safe and timely discharge of complex and end of life patients, addressing any pharmaceutical needs that arise.

In conjunction with the Principal Pharmacist, attend and actively participate in Divisional Management and Governance meetings, advising on issues relating to medicines and provision of pharmaceutical services.

Monitor medicine related errors and interventions and contribute to root cause analyses. Working in conjunction with the Trust Medication Safety Officer take action to share learning and prevent recurrence of errors and incidents.

Provide advice and education to patients on the correct use of medication and ensure that directions associated with medications are understood. Proactively signpost and refer patients to external agencies for follow up and further support if necessary.

Identify drug related adverse effects and where appropriate follow through with a yellow card report to the MHRA.

Encourage compliance with the national, regional, and local clinical guidelines and the prescribing formulary at all times to promote rational and economic prescribing.

Provide guidance to the Community Services on relevant medicines legislation and Trust policies and ensure Pharmacy staff working within Community Services conform with these.

Aid with the production of policies, procedures, guidelines, and Patient Group Directions to assist in the smooth delivery of medicines optimisation to the Directorate.

Lead and participate in medicines and pharmacy related audits and continuous quality improvement projects.

Support the development, review, ratification, and further review of medicines containing clinical guidelines for the Directorate and participate in their multidisciplinary audit.

Audit, evaluate, develop, and implement evidence-based improvements, monitor standards against appropriate benchmarks and undertake risk assessments of the service.

Operational Management

Ensure that an effective, safe, and efficient clinical pharmacy service is provided to all community-based services.

Responsible for prioritising tasks and escalating appropriately to the Principal Pharmacist for Community Services and Integrated Care.

Ensure that controlled drug audits are carried out every three months and that an action plan is put in place to address issues of non-compliance.

Monitor usage of medicines liable to misuse monthly, investigate and report any areas of concern to the Clinical Director of Pharmacy.

Ensure that departmental medicines storage audits are carried out at least annually and that an action plan is put in place to address issues of non-compliance.

Financial Management

Ensure that information about medicine usage and cost is conveyed to services monthly via appropriate forums and reports.

Provide accurate drug expenditure forecasts and horizon scanning for appropriate Trust, Divisional and Directorate Groups.

Identify and implement in a timely manner, changes in prescribing practice to ensure best value for money and delivery of CIP targets.

Support the Principal Pharmacist with the introduction of new medicines and pathways within Community Services.

Prepare and present prescribing reports to the Directorate Management teams.

Provide support to the Specialist clinical pharmacist for Community Services formulate finance and governance reports for the Directorate.

Disseminate good practice, drive initiatives to transform pathways to make optimal use of resources and new technologies

Staff Management

To line manage allocated foundation year, Band 6 and Band 7 Pharmacists, to include responsibility for:- Performance Management, Appraisal and Objective setting, sickness absence, disciplinary and grievance matters, personal development, annual leave allocation.

Responsible for recruitment, selection, and retention of line managed staff.

To supervise more junior pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, support staff and students in provision of pharmacy services where appropriate.

Workforce Development, Education and Training

Participate in local training initiatives to meet CPD requirements of healthcare staff.

To supervise and train Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians working in Community Services and participate in the education and training of the wider multidisciplinary team where appropriate.

Develop and deliver lectures, tutorials, and other teaching sessions on medicines-related issues for medical, nursing and pharmacy staff within the specialty and encourage participation of junior members of the team

Participate in the training programme schedules for foundation year students and vocational undergraduates. This may involve being a Foundation Year Tutor and/or Clinical Diploma coordinator.

To promote and participate in practice-based research.

General Obligations

To participate in the provision of extended hours of service, including late evening working, Saturdays, Sundays, bank holidays and on-call according to formal rota arrangements and departmental need.

Support the Principal Pharmacist for Community Services and Integrated care with team rota preparation

To report any suspected or observed defects in drugs, medicinal products, and equipment to the Deputy Clinical Director of Pharmacy.

To maintain own development, facilitating up to date skills and knowledge. Identify own development requirements, acknowledging any limitations and taking necessary actions to overcome.

To be familiar with, and maintain, safe standards of work and adequate records of all processes.

To have due regard for, and conform at all times with relevant professional and occupational guidelines including, but not exclusively, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society Code of Professional Ethics, the General Pharmaceutical Council standards, the Medicines Act, the Duthie Report, relevant Controls Assurance requirements, Health and Safety at Work, Manual Handling, the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) and associated Trust policies and procedures.

To maintain at all times the rules relating to patient confidentiality.

To work within Trust policies, procedures, and guidelines.

Person Specification

Qualifications and Experience

Essential

• Masters degree in pharmacy (or equivalent) and registration with GPhC
• Postgraduate clinical diploma or equivalent qualification
• Minimum of four years post-registration experience
• Independent Prescribing Qualification
• Recent experience in a clinical pharmacy role either in a hospital or a primary care environment
• Recent experience working as an independent prescriber

Skills

Essential

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to work on own initiative
• Ability to prioritise and plan own work effectively
• Ability to provide highly complex information on pharmaceutical issues and impart knowledge to all levels of healthcare professionals
• Able to demonstrate a wide knowledge and understanding of pharmacy practice and the workings of the NHS, including prescribing and medicines optimisation
• Able to demonstrate working knowledge of community services and integrated care

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.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

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

The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust

Address

New Cross Hospital

Wednesfield Road

Wolverhampton

WV10 0QP

Employer's website

https://www.royalwolverhampton.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)