Clinical Pharmacist

Job responsibilities

Job Role Summary

Improve patients health outcomes and efficiency of the practice team by providing direct, accessible and timely medicines expertise, including identifying areas for improvement and initiating change.

The primary contact within the practice for queries relating to medicines management, in particular around individual patient care.

Focus on individual patient care by addressing immediate and future needs to personalise care planning.

Proactively to transfer, from other clinical staff, workload relating to medicines optimisation to improve patient care and safety.

To demonstrate the effectiveness of the practice and the role through audit and data analysis.

To follow-up patients and investigations, particularly blood tests.

Repeat prescribing

Focused and structured reviews of repeat prescriptions on an individual basis to improve quality and safety and maximise effectiveness and reduce wastage.

Medication review services via clinics in the practice, domiciliary visit and in residential and nursing homes. These may be face-to-face or notes-based reviews.

Long-Term Conditions and Chronic Disease Management

Undertake disease focused medication reviews and telephone advice to patients with LTCs on specific medicines management issue

Ensure the care for patients taking high risk drugs e.g. DMARDs, anticoagulation, are safe and appropriate

Be familiar with, contribute to the development off and work alongside practice ICB long-term conditions pathways to ensure consistency and efficiency of systems

Provide health promotion where appropriate, including flu vaccinations.

Patient facing long term condition clinics

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).

Patient-facing and telephone clinical medication review

Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients with multimorbidity and polypharmacy and implement own prescribing changes (as an independent prescriber) and order relevant monitoring tests face-to-face or over the telephone

Vulnerable/Housebound patients

Manage vulnerable housebound patients at risk of hospital admission and harm from poor use of medicines.

Identifying key areas of need for vulnerable patients and formulating care plans

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 and educating patients in the use of non-GP services, such as Pharmacy First and referring to GPs or other healthcare professionals where appropriate

Patient facing and telephone medicines support

Provide support and advice to patients with medication related questions, queries or concerns

Medicine information to healthcare professionals and other members of MDT

Answer all medication-related enquiries from GPs, other practice staff and other healthcare teams (e.g. community pharmacy, care homes etc.)

Suggest and recommend solutions

Medicines Reconciliation (hospital discharges and clinic outpatient letters)

To reconcile medicines following discharge from hospitals, intermediate care and into care homes outpatient clinic letters, including identifying and rectifying unexplained changes manage these changes without referral to a GP

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.

When reconciling discharge letters or outpatient clinic letters ensure prescribing is in concordance with national and local policies and to ensure optimisation of treatment and reduce inappropriate or wasteful prescribing.

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).

Work in partnership with hospital colleagues (e.g. care of the elderly doctors and clinical pharmacists) to proactively manage patients at high risk of medicine related problems before they are discharged to ensure continuity of care

Ensure patients are informed and aware of any changes to their medication

Practice Formulary

Manage practice formularies and IT systems to ensure appropriate selection of medication is easy and maximise by prescribers in the practice

Liaise directly with hospital colleagues where prescribing needs to be returned to specialists. Assist practices in setting and maintaining a practice formulary that is hosted on the practices computer system

IMT and Electronic Prescribing

Facilitate the development of electronic prescribing and increase its usage

To update and maintain accurate patient medication records on the patients clinical computer systems, including advice given and action taken in pharmacist clinics/reviews.

Safety, Risk and Governance

Ensure appropriate governance is in place regarding medicines, including leading on the response to any drug safety alerts or changes in clinical guidance.

Assist with the development of relevant medicines management guidance and/or policies.

Meet regularly with the practice prescribing lead to discuss medication issues.

To advise the primary healthcare team on the safe and secure handling of controlled drugs and other medicines, ensuring compliance with medicines legislation.

Identify and flag up risks with regard to management of medicines including clinical and financial risks.

To offer advice and guidance on adverse significant events that involve medication to ensure lessons are learned and appropriate changes made to prevent re-occurrence.

To offer advice and guidance on patient complaints that relate to medication/prescribing.

Audit and Monitoring

To plan and undertake clinical/prescribing audits to identify areas where improvement is needed, development action plans and implement appropriate changes.

To provide regular support and feedback on prescribing action plans.

Report regularly to the GP partners on the practice prescribing figures with benchmarking against other local and national data.

Analyse practice complex prescribing data to inform GPs and non-medical prescribers on their collective and individual performance.

Lead on the identification, implementation and monitoring of medicines management targets and initiatives including QOF, QIPP and ICB prescribing target.

Support the implementation of actions resulting from audit findings when necessary.

To agree all auditing and monitoring priorities in discussion with the practice.

Relationships

To provide training in medicines related issues to other members of the practice as appropriate.

To consider the skills of the reception team and develop plans for training as necessary to ensure safe and efficient prescribing processes.

To assist with Clinical Supervision of trainee Pharmacy technician, Pharmacy technicians and Junior Clinical Pharmacist.

To support and develop training pathway for pre-registration pharmacist.

Medicines Information and Awareness

Analyse and critically appraise complex information to prepare concise evidence-based summaries/advice to clinicians and nonclinical staff and patients.

Prepare evidence-based resources and information to support the health professionals in the implementation of rational cost-effective prescribing.

Present at patient group meetings or other appropriate events to give advice on the appropriate use of medicines.

Produce patient information leaflets and posters, and run medicine is aware of his projects throughout the year.

Raise awareness of out of practice schemes, such as minor ailments and schemes that promote self-care.

Other

Essential

• Flexibility to meet the needs of the business
• Able to travel to all SHP sites
• DBS required
• Immunisation status

Desirable

• Full driving licence

Experience

Essential

• In depth therapeutic and clinical knowledge and understanding of the principles of evidence based healthcare
• An appreciation of the nature of GPs and general practices
• An appreciation of the nature of primary care prescribing, concepts of rational prescribing and strategies for improving prescribing

Desirable

• Minimum 3 years post qualification experience
• Worked within a primary care or general practice
• Management of patients with long term conditions

Qualifications

Essential

• Mandatory registration with General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)
• Masters degree in pharmacy (MPharm) (or equivalent)
• Specialist knowledge acquired through post-graduate diploma levels or equivalent training/experience
• CPPE Primary Care Pharmacy Education Pathway
• Independent prescribing qualification

Desirable

• Membership of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society
• Specialist knowledge acquired through post-graduate diploma levels or equivalent training/experience
• CPPE Primary Care Pharmacy Education Pathway
• Independent prescribing qualification

Skills and Knowledge

Essential

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Communicates effectively with patients and carers, recognising the need for alternative methods of communication to overcome difficult levels of understanding, cultural background and preferred ways of communicating, whilst ensuring the patient is fully informed
• Demonstrate the ability to communicate complex and sensitive information in an understandable form to a variety of audiences (e.g. patients)
• Excellent interpersonal, influencing and negotiating skills
• Is able to effectively plan, manage, monitor, advise and review general medicine optimisations issues in cored areas for long term conditions
• Recognise priorities when problem solving and identifies deviations from the normal pattern and is able to refer to seniors or GPs when appropriate
• Able to obtain and analyse complex technical information
• Knowledge of health promotion strategies
• Knowledge of clinical governance issues in primary care
• Effective decision making and negotiation skills
• Ability to problem solve and meet deadlines whilst working under pressure
• Excellent organisational skills
• Work effectively independently and as a team member
• Gain acceptance for recommendations and influence/motivate/persuade the audience to comply with the recommendations/agreed course of action where there may be significant barriers
• Demonstrate accountability for delivering professional expertise and direct service provision

Desirable

• IT skills (MS Office, EMIS and DOCMAN)

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.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).