Senior Pharmacist Clinical Lead for Frailty Assessment Service Band 8a

Job description

Job responsibilities

The post holder will:

- Improve medicines optimisation within the hospital setting for patients admitted to the Frailty Assessment Unit.

- Work in partnership with all appropriate hospital staff, external agencies and staff including care home staff, Community pharmacists, GP Practice/PCN Clinical Pharmacists and ICB Pharmacists.

- Ensure that patients on the Frailty Assessment Unit have a comprehensive medication review.

- Ensure that prescribing is evidence-based and cost effective.

- Provide education and training where necessary.

- Support the implementation and development of pathways and guidelines relating to medicines use within frailty.

- Work closely with Gloucestershire MOCH pharmacists and technicians in order to maximise effective system wide working across the Gloucestershire ICS.

Provision of Clinical Pharmacy Service to clinical area of responsibility.

Obtain key pharmaceutical information on newly admitted frail patients.

Information collected on a daily basis including:

Collecting, interpreting and documenting details of medication taken at home (the medication history).

Confirming details of the medication history with the patient, carer(s), GP Receptionist, the GP (occasionally), and by reviewing the patients own drugs from home if available, working alongside the Medicines Management Pharmacy Technicians.

Confirming and documenting important factors affecting the patients ability to manage their medicines at home (e.g. sight, hearing, manual dexterity, and use of a compliance aid).

Resolving any discrepancies and problems identified as a prescriber, to complete medicines reconciliation.

Provide clinical pharmacy service within Frailty Assessment Unit, ED and in reach to wards.

During the visit the pharmacist will:

Review prescriptions to ensure they are legal, safe, cost-effective, clinically necessary and appropriate, accurate, and complete.

Undertake Medicines Optimisation

Arrange for drugs to be supplied to patients, ward(s) or department(s).

Provide information and advice to nursing staff on a daily basis, about drugs, doses, administration and potential side-effects.

Provide information and advice to junior medical staff on a daily basis, and to Consultants as and when needed, including suggestions for initiating and modifying treatment.

Educate patients as appropriate about changes to their medication, and how to take specific medicines (e.g. warfarin, inhaler devices).

Access and interpret clinical information for specific patients (e.g. e-PMA system (Sunrise Clinical Manager), Patient Administration system (TrakCare), Pharmacy computer system (EMIS) as well as case notes and Summary Care Record (SCR)), and use it to individualise and monitor treatment.

Document relevant clinical and pharmaceutical information during in-patient stay which may be used to prepare discharge prescription and/or communicated to patient, carer(s) or GP.

Review discharge prescriptions written by medical staff, using professional judgement to make a final decision about content and appropriateness of discharge prescriptions when a suitable prescriber cannot be contacted.

Participate in Consultant ward rounds as appropriate, providing pharmaceutical advice and information to medical staff, nursing staff, and patients as part of a multi-professional team.

Undertake risk management and ensure compliance with legislation and relevant national policies and guidelines, along with local policies and procedures including the Trust Formulary.

Work in an effective team with technicians involved in Trust Medicines Management scheme on designated wards.

Usually work unsupervised, although the post-holder can seek advice from a range of colleagues as and when required.

Prepare frail patients for discharge from hospital

Daily tasks include:

Communicate with junior medical staff (and occasionally Consultants) to clarify aspects of the prescription including drug, dosage, frequency, duration of treatment, and length of supply when necessary.

Use professional judgement to make a final decision about content and appropriateness of discharge prescriptions when a suitable prescriber cannot be contacted.

Communicating with patients, carers, community pharmacists as necessary to establish what medication is available at home, and/or to explain changes made to their prescription during hospital admission.

Able to assess and respond appropriately to individual patients needs for help with managing their medicines at home.

Assessing the suitability of patients own drugs for re-use/continued use at home, if necessary.

Supply pharmaceutical and clinical information to the patients GP including details of and reasons for medication changes, advice given to the patient, or monitoring needed by the GP.

Provide highly specialised advice on appropriate drug treatment in line with own professional judgement, experience, evidence-based medicines and treatment guidelines

- on occasion, give a specialist opinion in areas where information is lacking and/or medical opinion differs

- educate junior doctors on good prescribing practice

- persuade senior/junior medical staff to follow agreed prescribing policies

To initiate, collaborate in, analyse and report on multi-disciplinary audits and research involving the pharmacy service and/or medical directorate as required.

Clinical Governance

Support the Divisional Clinical Governance agenda by advising on strategy for reducing medication errors and improving safety in conjunction with the Associate Pharmacy Director

- To investigate individual adverse incidents related to drug use within the Division in collaboration with the Clinical Risk and Effectiveness Department.

- To monitor trends associated with errors in prescribing, dispensing or administering drugs

- To educate other healthcare staff in the safe use of drugs

- To audit identified high risk areas

- To monitor Patient Safety Incident forms (Datix) completed by pharmacists working on the wards

Prescribing

If post holder holds a Certificate in Professional Studies/Postgraduate Certificate in Non-Medical Prescribing they must practise within the boundaries of local strategy, professional guidance and the law.

Prescribe medicines for agreed patients within their competency as a dependent (e.g. supplementary) prescriber in line with current legislation, local policies and within their own level of experience and competence

Prescribe medicines in their competency as an independent prescriber in line with current legislation, local policies and within their own level of experience and competence

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council
• Postgraduate Diploma in Clinical Pharmacy or equivalent post graduate qualifications
• Independent prescriber qualification
• 4 year Vocational Masters degree with postgraduate competency assessment with examination to enter the register

Experience

Essential

• Significant clinical experience as a Pharmacist in UK hospital at band 7 level or above, covering a wide range of clinical specialties including acute admission areas
• Experience delivering and developing a clinical pharmacy service

Knowledge/ Skills

Essential

• Excellent communication skills, both oral and written. Able to produce a range of written documents, including drug usage reports, SOPs, policies and guidelines.
• Excellent interpersonal skills. Able to challenge inappropriate prescribing and influence prescribing decisions of all healthcare professionals including senior medical colleagues.
• Proficient in the use of Sunrise EPR and EMIS plus a wide range of standard IT programmes including MS Word, Excel and Outlook
• Adaptable to the changing needs of the service including flexible working patterns (e.g. weekend working and working at both sites)
• Self-motivated, able to use initiative & prioritise workload as well as work as part of a multi-disciplinary team
• Able to effectively and appropriately escalate concerns to reduce risk & promote safety

Desirable

• Health Assessment skills

Qualities

Essential

• Awareness of professional and personal limitations, and willing to seek advice and support where necessary
• Reliable, polite and approachable

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

Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Gloucestershire Royal Hospital

Gloucester

GL1 3NN

Employer's website

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