Job responsibilities
Patient facing long-term condition clinics
See (where appropriate) patients with single or multiple medical problems where medicine optimisation is required (e.g., COPD, asthma). Review the on-going need for each medicine, a review of monitoring needs and an opportunity to support patients with their medicines taking ensuring they get the best use of their medicines (i.e., medicines optimisation). Make appropriate recommendations to Senior Pharmacists or GPs for medicine improvement.
Patient facing clinical medication review
Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for Senior Clinical Pharmacist, Nurses and/or GP on prescribing and monitoring.
Patient facing care home medication review
Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for the Senior Clinical Pharmacist, nurses or GPs on prescribing and monitoring. Work with care home staff to improve safety of medicines ordering and administration.
Patient facing domiciliary clinical medication review
Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for the Senior Clinical Pharmacists, Nurses and GPs on prescribing and monitoring. Attend and refer patients to multidisciplinary case conferences.
Management of common/minor/self-limiting aliments
Managing caseload for patients with common/minor/self-limiting ailments while working within a scope of practice and limits of competence. Signposting to community pharmacy and referring to GPs or other healthcare professionals where appropriate.
Patient facing medicines support
Provide patient facing clinics for those with questions, queries, and concerns about their medicines in the practice.
Telephone medicines support
Provide a telephone help line for patients with questions, queries, and concerns about their medicines.
Medicine information to practice staff and patients
Answers all medicine-related enquiries from GPs, other practice staff, other healthcare teams (e.g., community pharmacy) and patients with queries about medicines. Suggesting and recommending solutions. Providing follow up for patients to monitor the effect of any changes.
Unplanned hospital admissions
Review the use of medicines most commonly associated with unplanned hospital admissions and readmissions through audit and individual patient reviews. Put in place changes to reduce the prescribing of these medicines to high-risk patient groups.
Management of medicines at discharge from hospital
To reconcile medicines following discharge from hospitals, intermediate care and into care homes, including identifying and rectifying unexplained changes and working with patients and Community Pharmacists to ensure patients receive the medicines they need post discharge. Set up and manage systems to ensure continuity of medicines supply to high-‐risk groups of patients (e.g., those with medicine compliance aids or those in care homes).
Signposting
Ensure that patients are referred to the appropriate Healthcare Professional for the appropriate level of care within an appropriate period of time e.g., pathology results, common/minor ailments, acute conditions, long term condition reviews etc.
Repeat prescribing
Produce and implement a practice repeat prescribing policy. Manage the repeat prescribing reauthorisation process by reviewing patient requests for repeat prescriptions and reviewing medicines reaching review dates and flagging up those needing a review. Ensure patients have appropriate monitoring tests in place when required.
Risk stratification
Identification of cohorts of patients at high risk of harm from medicines through pre-prepared practice computer searches. This might include risks that are patient related, medicine related, or both.
Service development
Contribute pharmaceutical advice for the development and implementation of new services that have medicinal components (e.g., advice on treatment pathways and patient information leaflets).
Information management
Analyse, interpret, and present medicines data to highlight issues and risks to support decision making.
Medicine’s quality improvement
Undertake simple audits of prescribing in areas directed by the GPs, feedback the results and implement changes in conjunction with the practice team.
Medicine’s safety
Implement changes to medicines that result from MHRA alerts, product withdrawal and other local and national guidance.
Implementation of local and national guidelines and formulary recommendations
Monitor practice prescribing against the local health economy’s RAG list and make recommendations to GPs for medicines that should be prescribed by hospital doctors (red drugs) or subject to shared care (amber drugs). Assist practices in seeing and maintaining a practice formulary that is hosted on the practice’s computer system. Auditing practice’s compliance against NICE technology assessment guidance. Provide newsletters or bulletins on important prescribing messages.
Education and training
Provide education and training to primary healthcare team on therapeutics and medicines optimisation.
Care Quality Commission
Work with the general practice team to ensure the practice is compliant with CQC standards where medicines are involved.
Public health
To support public health campaigns. To provide specialist knowledge on all public health programmes available to the general public.
Collaborative working relationships
· Recognise the roles of other colleagues within the organisation and their role to patient care
· Demonstrate use of appropriate communication to gain the co-operation of relevant stakeholders (including patients, senior and peer colleagues, and other professionals, other NHS/private organisations e.g., CCGs)
· Actively work toward developing and maintaining effective working relationships both within and outside the practice and locality
· Foster and maintain strong links with all services across locality
· Explore the potential for collaborative working and takes opportunities to initiate and sustain such relationships
· Demonstrate ability to integrate general practice with community and hospital pharmacy teams
· Liaise with CCG colleagues including CCG Pharmacists on prescribing related matters to ensure consistency of patient care and benefit
· Liaise with CCG pharmacists and Heads of Medicines Management/ Optimisation to benefit from peer support
Knowledge, skills, and experience
· Completion of an undergraduate degree in pharmacy and registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council
· Has experience and an awareness of common acute and long-term conditions that are likely to be seen in general practice
· May hold or be working towards an independent prescribing qualification.
· Recognises priorities when problem-solving and identifies deviations from normal pattern and is able to refer to seniors or GPs when appropriate
· Able to follow legal, ethical, professional, and organisational policies/procedures and codes of conduct
· Involves patients in decisions about prescribed medicines and supporting adherence as per NICE guidelines.
Education, training, and development
· Understand and demonstrate the characteristics of a role model to members in the team and/or service
· Demonstrate understanding of the mentorship process
· Demonstrate ability to conduct teaching and assessment effectively according to a learning plan with supervision from more experience colleague
· Demonstrate self-development through continuous professional development activity; working alongside Senior Clinical Pharmacist to identifying areas to develop
· Participate in the delivery of formal education programmes
· Demonstrate an understanding of current educational policies relevant to working areas of practice and keeps up to date with relevant clinical practice.
· Ensure appropriate clinical supervision is in place to support development
· Enrol into review and appraisal systems within the practice
Research and evaluation
· Demonstrate ability to critically evaluate and review literature
· Demonstrate ability to identify where there is a gap in the evidence base to support practice
· Demonstrate ability to generate evidence suitable for presentations at practice and local level
· Demonstrate ability to apply research evidence base into working place
· Demonstrate understanding of principles of research governance.
For more information please see the supporting documents.
