Job responsibilities
JOB PURPOSE
The post holder will
work within their
clinical competencies as part of a multi-disciplinary
team to provide expertise in clinical medicines optimisation across the PCN. This will include
structured medication reviews with direct patient contact and may include contributing to:
Enhancing Health in Care Homes
Management of long-term
conditions
Minor illness
Management of medicines on transfer of care
Reviewing systems for
safer prescribing
Contributing to repeat prescription authorisations and reauthorisation
Actioning acute prescription requests
Addressing both the public health and social care needs of patients
Contributing to achievement of QOF and quality improvement schemes
Undertaking clinical
audit
The post-holder will
provide support to any clinical pharmacists employed in the PCN in the future.
The specifics of the role in each PCN
will be worked up between the post-holder and the
PCN.
The post holder
will be supported by a GP clinical mentor
and the Clinical Director of
Pharmacy at Wye Valley NHS Trust. They will also engage with pharmacy colleagues across
Herefordshire for peer
support.
The Pharmacist will ensure that PCN Practices integrate with community and hospital pharmacy to help utilise skill mix, improve patient outcomes, ensure better access to healthcare, and help manage workload. The role is pivotal
to
improving the quality of care
and operational efficiencies so requires motivation and passion to deliver excellent service
within general practice.
The post holder
will be supported to develop their role to become a non-medical prescriber,
if
that qualification is not already held, and will
be
required to enroll
on
the General
Practice Pharmacist Training Pathway from CPPE, unless an equivalent qualification is already held
or exemption is agreed by CPPE.
MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES
(Please note this is a list
of options, it is not exhaustive, which options are deployed will be decided
by the individual PCN, in conjunction
with
the clinical pharmacist
and SEL
GP
Group). It is however mandated by NHS England that this role is patient-
facing in nature.
1. Patient facing Clinical Medication
Review
Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients and work within your scope of practice as an independent
prescriber to implement any necessary changes (or
produce recommendations for/refer to other prescribing pharmacists, nurses and/or
GPs
to implement if outside your scope).
These reviews could be cohort based, in care homes,
polypharmacy or any other
area required by the PCN, within the pharmacists competence.
Home visits may be required.
2. Medicines quality improvement
Undertake clinical audits of prescribing in areas identified by yourself and agreed by the PCN or as directed by the PCN, feedback the results and implement changes in conjunction
with the relevant practice team.
Identify cohorts of patients at high risk of harm from medicines through computer
searches.
This might include risks that are patient related, medicine related, or
both. Put in place
changes to reduce the prescribing of these medicines to high-risk patient groups.
3. Medicines safety
Implement changes to medicines that result from MHRA alerts, product withdrawal and other
local and national guidance.
4. Leadership
and
management
You will be expected to contribute to the leadership of medicines-related issues for the PCN and
Demonstrate understanding of the pharmacy role in governance and implement this appropriately within the workplace.
Demonstrate understanding of, and contribute to, the workplace vision
Demonstrate ability to improve quality within limitations of service
Review progress yearly and develop clear
plans to achieve results within priorities set by others.
Demonstrate ability to motivate self to achieve goals
Demonstrate ability to lead a team and provide support to other
clinical pharmacists
Demonstrate understanding of the implications of national priorities for the team and/or service and manage the team
through these changes
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
Lead and mentor a team of differing abilities
5. Management of common/minor/self-limiting ailments
Managing caseload of 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.
6. Patient facing medicines support
Provide patient facing clinics for those with questions, queries and concerns about their
medicines in the practice.
7. Telephone medicines support
Provide a telephone help line for patients with questions, queries and concerns about their medicines.
8. Management of medicines at change of care setting
Reconcile medicines following discharge from hospital or admission to intermediate care or 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).
9. Medicine information to
practice staff and
patients
Answer
relevant medicine-related enquiries from GPs, other network staff, other healthcare
teams (e.g. community pharmacy) and patients with queries about medicines. Suggest and
recommend solutions. Providing follow up for patients to monitor
the effect of any changes.
10. Drug monitoring
Ensure robust systems are in place for drug monitoring at each practice across the PCN, streamlining these where possible. Understand and apply the traffic light classifications for
prescribing in the Herefordshire Health Economy.
11. 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.
12. Repeat
prescribing
Ensure each practice in the PCN has a robust repeat prescribing policy, and streamline
these across the PCN where possible. You may be asked to contribute to the repeat prescribing reauthorisation process by reviewing patient requests for repeat prescriptions
and reviewing medicines reaching review dates. Ensure patients have appropriate monitoring in place when required.
13. Service development
Contribute pharmaceutical advice for
the implementation and delivery of new
services that have medicinal components (e.g. advice on treatment pathways and patient information
leaflets).
14. Information management
Analyse, interpret and present medicines data to highlight issues and risks to support
decision making.
15. Education and Training
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
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
16. Care Quality Commission
Work with the general practice teams to ensure the practices are compliant with CQC
standards where medicines are involved.
17. Public health
Support public health campaigns. Provide specialist knowledge on all public health
programmes available to the general public.
18. Special working conditions
The post holder
is
required to travel
independently between work sites and to attend
meetings etc hosted by other
agencies.
The post-holder will
have contact with body fluids, i.e. wound exudates, urine etc while in clinical practice.
The post-holder is likely to need to visit patients in their
own home.
