Senior Clinical Pharmacist

Job description

Job responsibilities

Job Purpose:

The successful candidate is an experienced clinical pharmacist with strong management and leadership skills. They will bring experience working within general practice to improve the quality and safety of care offered to patients of the primary care network. They will be able to lead a team of pharmacists, as well as liaising with primary care networks to deliver the network DES and other clinical work as deemed appropriate by the PCN leadership.

The senior pharmacist would support their Clinical Pharmacy team to develop and manage medicines optimisation services within the network practices. They will provide leadership to ensure the clinical pharmacy team achieve the following aims:

To reduce the medicines related workload on doctors.

Increase safety and quality of prescribed medicines.

Provide support on medicines related issues to the whole practice team.

To develop quality improvement for medicines management and prescribing across each primary care network

They should also support the following practice development work:

-Focusing on QoF Domains, improving disease registers

-Prescribing Safety, Clinical audit, Local Enhanced Services support

-Lead on prescription management (systems and processes, ensuring monitoring is being done, support clerical staff)

-Support the delivery of PCN wide projects as agreed by the PCN leadership

In view of the dynamic nature of the role, this job profile is intended to provide an outline of the duties and responsibilities; it will be subject to review and amendment as necessary in consultation with the post holder

Knowledge, skills, and experience required for the role.

Minimum of 4-5 years post-graduate experience, some of which may have been in an acute hospital or primary care setting.

Minimum 2 years experience working in a General Practice.

Independent Prescriber qualification and extensive clinical knowledge in the management of Chronic conditions

Post-graduate Diploma in General Pharmacy Practice is desirable but not essential.

Strong communication skills

Self-motivation

Strongly held values around equality, diversity, and openness

Understands and demonstrates self-development through CPD activity, ability to develop and deliver education for other staff and mentor and appraise more junior pharmacist colleagues.

Leadership and Management

As the senior PCN pharmacist you will be expected to contribute to the leadership of medicines-related issues for the PCN, and to provide leadership and mentoring to any clinical pharmacists employed by the PCN:

Demonstrate understanding of the pharmacy role in general practice and can implement this appropriately within the workplace.

Demonstrate understanding of the process for effective resource utilisation.

Demonstrate ability to motivate self to achieve goals.

Demonstrate ability to lead a team and provide support to other clinical pharmacists.

Demonstrate understanding of, and conforms to, relevant standards of practice.

Demonstrate ability to identify and resolve any performance issues.

Follow professional and organisational policies/procedures relating to performance management.

Demonstrate ability to extend boundaries of service delivery within the team.

Demonstrate ability to lead and mentor a team of differing abilities.

Primary Duties and Areas of Responsibility for Senior pharmacists

1. Line manager for PCN clinical pharmacists-
2. Take responsibility for Introducing new clinical pharmacists to their practices and explain the role, manage expectations, and explain how the role will progress.
3. -Day to day line management of clinical pharmacists
4. -Working in the same practice as the clinical pharmacist periodically and address any gaps in knowledge, demonstrate good practice and update progression plans.
5. -Organise debrief discussions at team meetings.
6. -As appropriate to the post, to maintain and develop professional competence and expertise, keep up to date with medical/therapeutic evidence and opinion, and local and national service, legislation, and policy developments.
7. -Provide ongoing support and management of pharmacy team.
8. -Review progress of the team and their clinical work and develop clear plans to achieve results within priorities set by the clinical directors and the lead pharmacist.
9. -Work with practices to implement PCN wide projects as agreed by the PCN leadership

Training and supervision for PCN clinical pharmacists

1. Supervision for PCN clinical pharmacists
2. Overseeing development and progression of the PCN clinical pharmacists
3. Implementing changes in their clinical practice in line with their development
4. Lead on the appraisal process

Liaising with key stakeholders and other organisations where required- Primary care networks, local hospital trust, GP Federation, CCG, Islington and Camden Pharmacy committee, local authority

Primary Duties and areas of responsibility for all pharmacists

Primary duties and areas of responsibility

Patient facing activities Structured Medication reviews

1. Frail elderly patient with problematic Polypharmacy, renal and/ or hepatic impairment
2. Patients on high-risk medicines
3. STOPP/START identified patients.
4. Revolving door Hospital admissions
5. LTC: Diabetes, Hypertension, Asthma, COPD
6. contraception
7. Learning Disability reviews
8. Rheumatoid arthritis reviews
9. Musculoskeletal pain management, e.g., osteoarthritis
10. Ongoing care of defined conditions, e.g., eczema, psoriasis, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
11. Contribute to multimorbidity reviews and multidisciplinary reviews.

Management of common/minor/self- limiting ailments

1. Managing caseload for patients with common/minor/self-limiting ailments while working within a scope of practice and limits of competence.
2. Signposting to community pharmacy and referring to GPs or other healthcare professionals where appropriate

Repeat prescribing.

1. Produce and implement robust systems for repeat prescribing.
2. Support the management of repeat prescribing reauthorization process by reviewing complex patient requests for repeat prescriptions and reviewing medicines overdue a review.
3. Coordinate with patients and community pharmacies as appropriate

Management of medicines at discharge from hospital

1. To reconcile medicines following discharge from hospitals, intermediate care and into care homes
2. Perform a clinical medication review, produce a post discharge medicines care plan including dose titration and booking of follow up tests and working with patients and community pharmacists to ensure patients receive the medicines they need post discharge

Risk Management and Patient Safety

1. Responsible for high-risk drug monitoring
2. Responsible for design, development, and implementation of system searches to identify cohorts of patients at high risk of harm from medicines.
3. Increase quality and safety of prescribing through mechanisms such as audit and PDSA cycles.
4. Implement drug withdrawals and alerts e.g., MHRA aimed at improving medicines safety

Medicine information to practice staff and patients

1. Deal will all medication queries from

• From patients, community pharmacy, secondary care
• From admin staff
• From clinicians

2 .Act as a source of medicines information for the practice team and patients (e.g., around doses, side effects, adverse events, possible alternatives for out of stocks)

Care Quality Commission

1. Provide leadership to the general practice teams to ensure practices are compliant with CQC standards where medicines are involved.
2. Undertake risk assessment and management and ensure compliance with medicines legislation.

Public health

1. To contribute to public health campaigns, including u vaccinations, and adult immunisation programmes

Cost saving programs

1. Promote evidence based, cost effective prescribing.
2. Lead on compliance with medicines formulary

Training

1. Provide education and training to primary healthcare team on procedures around medicines as appropriate

Medicines quality improvement

1. Identify medicine-related areas of care (including using software tools) to improve patient safety and use of medicines.
2. Conduct medicine-related audits, significant event audit and complaint review.
3. Contribute to medicine-related complaint response letters as appropriate.
4. Lead on use of TARGET toolkit for antimicrobial stewardship.
5. Lead on stopping over-medication of people with a learning disability, autism, or both (STOMP) and people with dementia.

Medicines safety

1. Identify national and local policy and guidance that affects patient safety using medicines, including MHRA alerts, product withdrawals and emerging evidence form clinical trials.
2. Manage the process of implementing changes to medicines and guidance for practitioners

Key Collaborative Working Relationships:

1. Patients, GPs, nurses, and other practice staff
2. - Primary care networks and particularly clinical directors
3. - Other healthcare professionals involved in medicines management including the CCG Medicines management team.
4. - Practice based/ GP prescribing lead.
5. - PCN leads: Clinical Directors, Clinical Lead GPs and Lead Practice Managers, the Federation Networks team
6. - Community nurses and other allied health professionals including dietetics.
7. - Community pharmacists and support staff
8. - Hospital staff with responsibilities for prescribing and medicines optimisation.
9. - Care Home Staff
10. - The voluntary sector
11. - Locality or Practice based Social Prescribers.

Person Specification

Leadership and Management

Essential

• Demonstrate understanding of the pharmacy role in general practice and can implement this appropriately within the workplace.
• Demonstrate understanding of the process for effective resource utilisation.
• Demonstrate ability to motivate self to achieve goals.
• Demonstrate ability to lead a team and provide support to other clinical pharmacists.
• Demonstrate understanding of, and conforms to, relevant standards of practice.
• Demonstrate ability to identify and resolve any performance issues.
• Follow professional and organisational policies/procedures relating to performance management.
• Demonstrate ability to extend boundaries of service delivery within the team.
• Demonstrate ability to lead and mentor a team of differing abilities.

Experience

Essential

• Post-graduate Diploma in General Pharmacy Practice is desirable but not essential.
• Strong communication skills
• Self-motivation
• Strongly held values around equality, diversity, and openness
• Understands and demonstrates self-development through CPD activity, ability to develop and deliver education for other staff and mentor and appraise more junior pharmacist colleagues.

Qualifications

Essential

• Minimum of 4-5 years post-graduate experience, some of which may have been in an acute hospital or primary care setting.
• Minimum 2 years experience working in a General Practice.
• Independent Prescriber qualification and extensive clinical knowledge in the management of Chronic conditions

Employer details

Employer name

Islington GP Federation

Address

Unit 16-18

The Studios, Hornsey Street

Holloway

London

N7 8EG

Employer's website

https://www.islingtongpfederation.org/ (Opens in a new tab)