Job summary
There is a fantastic opportunity to join the renal pharmacy team at the Royal Free Hospital. The successful candidate will be responsible for and organise the day-to-day provision of an efficient comprehensive pharmacy service to all renal and urology wards, renal outpatients and the four UCL Centre for Nephrology dialysis units and kidney care centres in north central London.
The post holder must demonstrate comprehensive medicines management skills, including medication history taking, near-patient dispensing, and facilitation of discharge planning with respect to medications and medication counselling.
Other responsibilities include to monitor, develop and deliver the technical elements of the pharmaceutical service for renal patients in accordance with objectives set by the Lead Pharmacist Renal Services. The specialist workload will comprise patients within the nephrology, dialysis and renal transplantation services.
Main duties of the job
The renal service at the Royal Free Hospital serves the North Central London sector covered by Camden, Islington, Barnet, Enfield and Haringey PCTs, providing comprehensive services to nephrology, transplantation, and dialysis. We provide dialysis and chronic kidney care to more than 4000 patients and follow up more than 1400 with kidney transplants. The nephrology service has a national reputation in the management of renal tubular disorders, renal bone disease, nephro-urology and renal transplantation.
As part of the renal pharmacy team, you will be working alongside renowned experts in their field to help with the coordination and monitoring of medication supplies to a variety of renal services across North Central London. The post holder will also be expected to provide a comprehensive medicines management service as well as facilitate medication counselling to our patients.
About us
The Royal Free London NHS Trust is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the UK with many specialties where we are pioneers in clinical research and practice.
The trust has around 10,000 staff serving 1.6 million patients. It comprises Barnet Hospital, Chase Farm Hospital, the Royal Free Hospital and more than 30 services in the community. This large-scale organisation provides an unprecedented opportunity for us to continue our pioneering work, particularly in finding ways to deliver even better care to our patients.
The Pharmacy department is a friendly, progressive and expanding unit dedicated to providing the highest standards of pharmaceutical care and service. Providing a variety of pharmacy services across all three sites, the pharmacy department have recently played a pivotal role in the implementation of electronic prescribing system and have strategic plans for the development of more consultant and independent prescribing pharmacists. The pharmacy renal team play a key part on providing cost-effective and timely service to patients either throughout their stay as inpatients or through pharmacist-led clinics. The team is well-respected both at ward and clinic level, providing advice to both nursing and medical staff on the use of medicines for this complex set of patients.
Job description
Job responsibilities
1. CLINICAL RESPONSIBILITIES
- To deliver a high quality and comprehensive medicines counselling service to renal and urology patients on all aspects of their pharmaceutical care including specialist and unlicensed drugs. To overcome communication barriers through the use of interpreters or other forms of communication
- Assessing patients on their ability to take medication and provision of compliance aids where compliance is a problem. This may include reminder charts, easy-open bottles or dosette boxes. This includes mandatory counselling of new transplant patients pre-discharge from the wards.
- To deliver an efficient ward based service to ensure the accurate and timely supply of medicines. This service will include: - assessment of patients drugs as well as accurate drug-history taking through GP communication, Vitaldata (renal database) medical notes interpretation, drug interventions and discharge planning for the renal units.
- To deliver an efficient pharmacy based service to all the external and in house based dialysis units, renal clinics, urology clinics and outpatients. To ensure stock lists are up to date, liaise with nurses in charge to adapt services in line with changing needs of the renal patient population.
- Maintaining regular visits to the dialysis units to complete necessary audits and training.
- Identifying, arranging and providing medicines-based training to the nursing staff on the wards.
- Promotion of high-quality cost-effective prescribing.
2. RESPONSIBILITIES TO PATIENTS
- To analyse and interpret prescriptions within the specialities of nephrology, dialysis and transplantation, and refer problems to the pharmacist.
- To act as an Accredited Checking Technician (ACT) to expedite the TTA discharge process
- To assist in responding to complaints from patients, ward and dialysis unit staff in relation to medicine management issues.
- To liaise with primary care pharmacists to ensure continuity of care for patients on discharge from the renal and urology wards.
- To liaise with satellite dialysis units and the OPAT service to ensure correct monitoring of, and supply of antibiotics for patients on dialysis.
- To provide technical support to facilitate the smooth running of the near patient dispensing for all renal in-patients.
- To support the renal pharmacy technical team in ensuring discharge medications are prepared in a timely fashion.
- To counsel patients on their medicines to promotes their understanding of and compliance with prescribed medications.
3. RESPONSIBILITY FOR POLICY AND SERVICE DEVELOPMENT
- To be responsible for the maintenance of a technical pharmacy service to the renal wards. To implement strategies to improve and develop the service. Key areas to maintain include:
- The near patient dispensing service incorporating the assessment and use of patients own drugs and the ordering of medication labelled ready for discharge
- The timely supply of medication for discharge including liaising with primary care to ensure continuity of supply e.g. dosette boxes or complex medication regimens
- To facilitate and support the development of medicines management initiatives complying with Care Quality Commission standards for renal patients with complex pharmaceutical care needs including auditing of the service provided.
- To implement and maintain SOPs for own area and to contribute to policies when appropriate.
- To assist relevant healthcare professionals in responding to UK-wide medicines management and prescribing recommendations (g. NICE, National Service Frameworks) with the support of the Principal Pharmacist Renal services.
- To work with managers and colleagues to identify, manage and minimise risks within the renal wards risk management framework.
- To work with managers and colleagues to continually improve the quality of services within the overall governance framework.
- To participate in and attend relevant multidisciplinary meetings.
4. RESPONSIBILITY FOR FINANCIAL AND PHYSICAL RESOURCES
- To promote and ensure maximum efficiency, safety and economic drug use
- To assist the Principal Pharmacist - Renal services in the preparation and analysis of monthly drug expenditure reports
- To ensure compliance with systems of reimbursement for payment by results (PbR) excluded drugs
- To ensure that all renal wards and dialysis unit resources are used effectively
- To oversee the provision of a pharmacy top-up service to all renal and urology wards. To oversee the supply of drugs to the dialysis units.
- To oversee a system for the safe storage and retrieval of prescriptions and requisitions.
- To be responsible for the ordering and maintenance of resources for the renal satellite pharmacy
- To liaise with the Outpatient Pharmacy to arrange delivery of stock items and outpatient medications to the external dialysis units in a timely manner.
5. RESPONSIBILITY FOR LEADING AND MANAGING
- To be the day-to-day management of the renal technicians workload, including work planning and resource allocation taking into account unpredictable work patterns, interruptions and the need to meet deadlines.
- To assist in the development of the technical pharmacy service development to the renal wards. This will include auditing the current service provided (e.g. waiting times, customer satisfaction surveys) and producing / implementing strategies to improve / develop the service
- To manage difficult and ambiguous situations involving patients/family who may be highly distressed or anxious.
- To act as an effective role model and to provide pharmaceutical advice and support to members of the multidisciplinary team
- To support an innovative approach to practice, whilst being aware of boundaries and limitations.
- To undertake and co-ordinate audit projects and publish or present these findings. To assist other members of the pharmacy team in audit projects.
- To assist clinical pharmacists covering Renal and Urology wards during their rotations
6 RESPONSIBILITY FOR INFORMATION RESOURCES
- To accurately input data into the pharmacy computer system to produce labels and dispense medication (via the JAC system)
- To be familiar with the hospital electronic discharge summaries, and all relevant procedures including the Freenet system and Vital Data (renal database).
7. RESPONSIBILITY FOR RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
- To contribute to practice research within the area of renal and pharmacy
- To support the relevant medical, nursing and pharmacy staff to ensure that clinical trials are run efficiently
8. EDUCATIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES
- To contribute to the departmental appraisal and development programme for the technicians within the renal pharmacy team, as well as student and rotational technicians.
- Provision and evaluation of the induction and competency based training for staff new to the renal satellite pharmacy.
- To provide ongoing training to ensure that departmental procedure and legal and professional guidelines are adhered to at all times.
- To participate in training schemes/tutorials arranged for technicians
- To assist in the training of clinical pharmacists covering renal wards during their rotation.
- To contribute to the education and training of pharmacy, medical, nursing staff and other health care workers.
- PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES
- To uphold ethical and professional standards and to always behave in a manner that is positive and polite
- To be accountable for own professional actions
- To be responsible for ensuring that he/she remains aware of current developments in pharmacy
- To be responsible for his/her own continuing professional development and participate in own performance and development planning. To maintain a personal CPD portfolio
- At all times, to practice in accordance with the Code of Ethics of the GPhC
- To promote and sustain a responsible attitude towards equal opportunities and diversity
- To demonstrate a commitment to ongoing registration requirements or any national professional or occupational standards associated with the role
- ADDITIONAL DUTIES/RESPONSIBILITIES
To participate in the weekday, late duty, weekend and bank holiday service rosters at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust as required
- To undertake other relevant duties as assigned by the Principal Pharmacist-Renal services, Senior specialist pharmacist Renal services, Pharmacy manager or head of department
- The Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust operates a no-smoking policy. The post holder should either be a non-smoker or be prepared not to smoke in any of the Trusts grounds or vehicles.
- To adhere to all health and safety and fire regulations and to co-operate with the Royal Free in maintaining good standards in health and safety
Job description
Job responsibilities
1. CLINICAL RESPONSIBILITIES
- To deliver a high quality and comprehensive medicines counselling service to renal and urology patients on all aspects of their pharmaceutical care including specialist and unlicensed drugs. To overcome communication barriers through the use of interpreters or other forms of communication
- Assessing patients on their ability to take medication and provision of compliance aids where compliance is a problem. This may include reminder charts, easy-open bottles or dosette boxes. This includes mandatory counselling of new transplant patients pre-discharge from the wards.
- To deliver an efficient ward based service to ensure the accurate and timely supply of medicines. This service will include: - assessment of patients drugs as well as accurate drug-history taking through GP communication, Vitaldata (renal database) medical notes interpretation, drug interventions and discharge planning for the renal units.
- To deliver an efficient pharmacy based service to all the external and in house based dialysis units, renal clinics, urology clinics and outpatients. To ensure stock lists are up to date, liaise with nurses in charge to adapt services in line with changing needs of the renal patient population.
- Maintaining regular visits to the dialysis units to complete necessary audits and training.
- Identifying, arranging and providing medicines-based training to the nursing staff on the wards.
- Promotion of high-quality cost-effective prescribing.
2. RESPONSIBILITIES TO PATIENTS
- To analyse and interpret prescriptions within the specialities of nephrology, dialysis and transplantation, and refer problems to the pharmacist.
- To act as an Accredited Checking Technician (ACT) to expedite the TTA discharge process
- To assist in responding to complaints from patients, ward and dialysis unit staff in relation to medicine management issues.
- To liaise with primary care pharmacists to ensure continuity of care for patients on discharge from the renal and urology wards.
- To liaise with satellite dialysis units and the OPAT service to ensure correct monitoring of, and supply of antibiotics for patients on dialysis.
- To provide technical support to facilitate the smooth running of the near patient dispensing for all renal in-patients.
- To support the renal pharmacy technical team in ensuring discharge medications are prepared in a timely fashion.
- To counsel patients on their medicines to promotes their understanding of and compliance with prescribed medications.
3. RESPONSIBILITY FOR POLICY AND SERVICE DEVELOPMENT
- To be responsible for the maintenance of a technical pharmacy service to the renal wards. To implement strategies to improve and develop the service. Key areas to maintain include:
- The near patient dispensing service incorporating the assessment and use of patients own drugs and the ordering of medication labelled ready for discharge
- The timely supply of medication for discharge including liaising with primary care to ensure continuity of supply e.g. dosette boxes or complex medication regimens
- To facilitate and support the development of medicines management initiatives complying with Care Quality Commission standards for renal patients with complex pharmaceutical care needs including auditing of the service provided.
- To implement and maintain SOPs for own area and to contribute to policies when appropriate.
- To assist relevant healthcare professionals in responding to UK-wide medicines management and prescribing recommendations (g. NICE, National Service Frameworks) with the support of the Principal Pharmacist Renal services.
- To work with managers and colleagues to identify, manage and minimise risks within the renal wards risk management framework.
- To work with managers and colleagues to continually improve the quality of services within the overall governance framework.
- To participate in and attend relevant multidisciplinary meetings.
4. RESPONSIBILITY FOR FINANCIAL AND PHYSICAL RESOURCES
- To promote and ensure maximum efficiency, safety and economic drug use
- To assist the Principal Pharmacist - Renal services in the preparation and analysis of monthly drug expenditure reports
- To ensure compliance with systems of reimbursement for payment by results (PbR) excluded drugs
- To ensure that all renal wards and dialysis unit resources are used effectively
- To oversee the provision of a pharmacy top-up service to all renal and urology wards. To oversee the supply of drugs to the dialysis units.
- To oversee a system for the safe storage and retrieval of prescriptions and requisitions.
- To be responsible for the ordering and maintenance of resources for the renal satellite pharmacy
- To liaise with the Outpatient Pharmacy to arrange delivery of stock items and outpatient medications to the external dialysis units in a timely manner.
5. RESPONSIBILITY FOR LEADING AND MANAGING
- To be the day-to-day management of the renal technicians workload, including work planning and resource allocation taking into account unpredictable work patterns, interruptions and the need to meet deadlines.
- To assist in the development of the technical pharmacy service development to the renal wards. This will include auditing the current service provided (e.g. waiting times, customer satisfaction surveys) and producing / implementing strategies to improve / develop the service
- To manage difficult and ambiguous situations involving patients/family who may be highly distressed or anxious.
- To act as an effective role model and to provide pharmaceutical advice and support to members of the multidisciplinary team
- To support an innovative approach to practice, whilst being aware of boundaries and limitations.
- To undertake and co-ordinate audit projects and publish or present these findings. To assist other members of the pharmacy team in audit projects.
- To assist clinical pharmacists covering Renal and Urology wards during their rotations
6 RESPONSIBILITY FOR INFORMATION RESOURCES
- To accurately input data into the pharmacy computer system to produce labels and dispense medication (via the JAC system)
- To be familiar with the hospital electronic discharge summaries, and all relevant procedures including the Freenet system and Vital Data (renal database).
7. RESPONSIBILITY FOR RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
- To contribute to practice research within the area of renal and pharmacy
- To support the relevant medical, nursing and pharmacy staff to ensure that clinical trials are run efficiently
8. EDUCATIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES
- To contribute to the departmental appraisal and development programme for the technicians within the renal pharmacy team, as well as student and rotational technicians.
- Provision and evaluation of the induction and competency based training for staff new to the renal satellite pharmacy.
- To provide ongoing training to ensure that departmental procedure and legal and professional guidelines are adhered to at all times.
- To participate in training schemes/tutorials arranged for technicians
- To assist in the training of clinical pharmacists covering renal wards during their rotation.
- To contribute to the education and training of pharmacy, medical, nursing staff and other health care workers.
- PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES
- To uphold ethical and professional standards and to always behave in a manner that is positive and polite
- To be accountable for own professional actions
- To be responsible for ensuring that he/she remains aware of current developments in pharmacy
- To be responsible for his/her own continuing professional development and participate in own performance and development planning. To maintain a personal CPD portfolio
- At all times, to practice in accordance with the Code of Ethics of the GPhC
- To promote and sustain a responsible attitude towards equal opportunities and diversity
- To demonstrate a commitment to ongoing registration requirements or any national professional or occupational standards associated with the role
- ADDITIONAL DUTIES/RESPONSIBILITIES
To participate in the weekday, late duty, weekend and bank holiday service rosters at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust as required
- To undertake other relevant duties as assigned by the Principal Pharmacist-Renal services, Senior specialist pharmacist Renal services, Pharmacy manager or head of department
- The Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust operates a no-smoking policy. The post holder should either be a non-smoker or be prepared not to smoke in any of the Trusts grounds or vehicles.
- To adhere to all health and safety and fire regulations and to co-operate with the Royal Free in maintaining good standards in health and safety
Person Specification
Royal Free World Class Values
Essential
- Demonstrable ability to meet the Trust Values
Education & professional Qualifications
Essential
- Registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council
- BTEC in Pharmaceutical Sciences (NVQ Pharmacy Services Level 3) or equivalent
- NVQ A1 workplace assessor award or working towards
- Accredited checking technician
Experience
Essential
- Significant post qualification hospital pharmacy experience
- Previous assessable experience/understanding of JAC Pharmacy Computer System (or equivalent)
- Computer literate including Microsoft software products
Desirable
- Previous assessable supervisory experience and experience in training.
- Previous assessable experience in recruitment and selection of staff.
- Appraisals with feedback
Person Specification
Royal Free World Class Values
Essential
- Demonstrable ability to meet the Trust Values
Education & professional Qualifications
Essential
- Registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council
- BTEC in Pharmaceutical Sciences (NVQ Pharmacy Services Level 3) or equivalent
- NVQ A1 workplace assessor award or working towards
- Accredited checking technician
Experience
Essential
- Significant post qualification hospital pharmacy experience
- Previous assessable experience/understanding of JAC Pharmacy Computer System (or equivalent)
- Computer literate including Microsoft software products
Desirable
- Previous assessable supervisory experience and experience in training.
- Previous assessable experience in recruitment and selection of staff.
- Appraisals with feedback
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.
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).
Additional information
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).
