Job responsibilities
KEY RESPONSIBILITES
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.
Medicines 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.
Medicines 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 economys 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 practices computer system. Auditing practices
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
The post holder will:
- 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)
- Demonstrate ability to work as a member of a team
- Recognise personal limitations and refer to more appropriate colleague(s) when
necessary
- 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
- Liaise with other GP Practices and staff as needed for the collective benefit of patients
including but not limited to:
- Patients
- GP, Nurses, and other practice staff
- Other healthcare professionals including CCG pharmacists, pharmacy
technicians, optometrists, dentists, health and social care teams and dieticians
etc
o Locality / GP prescribing lead
- Locality managers
- Community nurses and other allied health professionals
- Community and hospital pharmacy teams
- Hospital staff with responsibilities for prescribing and medicines optimisation
Knowledge, skills, and experience
- Completion of an undergraduate degree in pharmacy and registration with the General
Pharmaceutical Council
- Minimum of 2 years experience as a pharmacist, demonstrated within a practice
portfolio
- 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.
- NB: it is anticipated of qualification held may vary according to the level of position and the
components of the role being carried out, see person specification that the level.
Leadership
- Demonstrate understanding of the pharmacy role in governance and is able to
implement this appropriately within the workplace.
- Demonstrate understanding of, and contributes to, the workplace vision
- Engage with Patient Participation Groups (PPGs) and involves PPGs in development of
the role and practices
- Demonstrate ability to improve quality within limitations of service
- Review yearly progress and develops clear plans to achieve results within priorities set by
others.
- Demonstrate ability to motivate self to achieve goals
- Promote diversity and equality in people management techniques and leads by example.
Management
- Demonstrate understanding of the implications of national priorities for the team and/or
service
- Demonstrate understanding of the process for effective resource utilisation
- Demonstrate understanding of, and conforms to, relevant standards of practice
- Demonstrate ability to identify and resolve risk management issues according to
policy/protocol
- Follow professional and organisational policies/procedures relating to performance
management
- Demonstrate ability to extend boundaries of service delivery within the team
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
For more information, please see supporting documents.
