Digital Medicines Lead Pharmacist

Job description

Job responsibilities

Provide clinical medicines management experience and knowledge and use this to contribute to the design of the EPMA solution to ensure safety and quality within the system.

*Resolve problems which could be clinical or technical in nature.

*Review and analyse incidents related to medicines management within EPMA.

*Escalate significant risks to appropriate governance boards.

*Manage and keep the drug file up to date.

*Contribute to the IT and Equipment plan leading on this for the medicine's management team and the dispensary.

*Drive continuous improvement through data analytics, dashboards, and benchmarking.

*Chair EPMA governance groups and user groups.

*Work closely with clinicians, pharmacists, IT teams, and project managers to ensure alignment with organisational goals.

*Responsible for ensuring all pharmacy related SOPs, policies and governance related documents are in place for all digital systems

*Ensure the EPMA system adheres to all relevant national and local standards e.g., MHRA; NHS I/E, GPhC, RPS, Information Governance etc.

*Draft complex reports for stakeholders.

*Collaborate with the Trust's contracts team to ensure contractual arrangements deliver value for money.

*Attend contract review meetings with the supplier.

*Contribute to other digital projects across the organization, taking the lead on all aspects related to medicines management.

*Maintain and regularly update the clinical safety case and hazard log for the EPMA system to ensure ongoing compliance and patient safety.

*To advocate for, and lead the implementation of EPMA or electronic prescribing solutions across HIOWH

* Lead the implementation of HIOWH EPMA system to inpatient wards not currently using EPMA or using alternative EPMA systems

*Assess the suitability for the HIOWH EPMA system to be extended to outpatient or community services.

*Lead on the implementation of EPMA to outpatient services

*Ensure the necessary governance procedures are implemented to ensure safe and successful implementation

*Provide clinical services in the dispensary or on a ward as the service needs.

*The post holder will be responsible for their own professional actions and decisions and will be expected to consider national protocols, professional and trust guidelines and relevant evidence when making decisions.

*Must be competent and confident to make sound decisions and be able to support these when challenged with a logical rationale/evidence base seeking advice from more senior colleagues when required. Decisions can be regarding clinical, policy and procedure, staff, ethics, legislation, responsibility, accountability, codes of practice, technical, financial, workload, health and safety, service provision, clinical governance, complaints/conflict and strategic issues within their area of responsibility.

*The post holder will be expected to be able to work independently using their own initiative and as part of a pharmacy, clinical and corporate team(s).

*May not take annual leave without prior agreement of the manager.

*May authorise expenditure within agreed limits as set out in the Standing Financial Instructions and Scheme of Delegation.

*Line manager for Lead Pharmacists, Pharmacy technicians and associated teams including supporting the following functions:

-recruitment and induction

-clarifying roles/ responsibilities

-setting of objectives and allocation of work

-ensuring staff are empowered, motivated and competent

-providing regular feedback and supportive reviews regarding progress against objectives, consideration of training or development needs/ opportunities and well-being

-following relevant HR policy and departmental procedures

-being available to providing support and advice as required

-performing an annual appraisal

-end of employment processes including exit interviews

*To work closely with the Senior Pharmacy Team to ensure staff objectives across the service are clear and aligned to service needs and departmental priorities.

*To provide support and advice to colleagues regarding the management, supervision and support of staff and assist in the recruitment of other staff.

*To support the development of pharmacy and other staff through the provision of teaching sessions, training material and individualised support.

*Understand and agree as an employee that it is your personal responsibility to comply with all organisational and statutory requirements e.g. Health and Safety, Equality and Diversity, Confidentiality and Information Governance.

*You will be expected to be aware of the location and content of relevant HR policies and support others in the team in this regard.

Further information about the Trust and this role can be found on the Job Description and Person Specification document attached. It is important to us that we ensure our recruitment processes are accessible and inclusive to everyone - if as a potential candidate you are concerned a person specification may prevent or restrict your application for employment as a result of unintentional barriers on the grounds of your sex, race, age, sexual orientation, religion/belief or disability please initially contact the Trust's Recruitment team - detailed in the advert. The Trust will seek to resolve this issue wherever possible.

We are happy to talk Flexible Working - all requests for flexible working options can be discussed as part of the interview process.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Registered Pharmacist with the General Pharmaceutical Council
• Postgraduate clinical diploma in pharmacy to Master's Level
• Post-graduate management qualification, or equivalent experience

Desirable

• Training in clinical safety management for health IT
• Project/Programme/Change certification (e.g., PRINCE2).

Experience

Essential

• Significant senior experience in EPMA/EPR implementation, optimisation, NHS setting or equivalent.
• Experience of managing a team
• Experience of working flexibly, under pressure and to tight deadlines
• Experience of chairing working groups and committees
• Experience in audit and project facilitation
• Experience of service planning/development
• Experience of budget management
• Experience of working across organisational boundaries
• Track record in clinical safety governance: maintaining safety cases & hazard logs, risk assessment, incident review, and implementing corrective/preventive actions.
• Experience designing and governing clinical decision support (dosing, interactions, duplication, renal/hepatic rules) and formulary management aligned to dm+d.
• Delivery of workflow redesign and change management (training/adoption, policy, SOPs) with measurable patient safety and quality improvements.
• Managing suppliers and contracts; contributing to procurement, business cases, and benefits realisation.
• Experience using SystemC

Desirable

• Experience in Mental Health
• Experience with analytics reporting (Power BI) and data extraction for audit KPIs.

Additional Criteria

Essential

• Knowledge of NHS Information systems, data models and the current NHS performance management structure
• Advanced level of clinical reasoning and judgement
• Ability to interrogate data (incidents, omissions, overrides), draw insights, and implement targeted improvements.
• Excellent written and verbal communication; able to translate between clinical and technical audiences and produce clear papers/policies.
• Builds strong relationships across clinical services, pharmacy, digital, suppliers, and executive leadership. Include patients voice in design and decisions.
• Acts with integrity, inclusivity, and respect; role models a patient safety first culture.
• Champions diversity, equity, and staff wellbeing; fosters psychologically safe teams.

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

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Address

St.Mary's Community Health Campus (Portsmouth)

Milton Road

Portsmouth

Hampshire

PO3 6AD

Employer's website

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