Clinical Lead Pharmacist in General Practice

Job description

Job responsibilities

PHOENIX HEALTH GROUP

JOB DESCRIPTION

Post Title: Clinical Lead Pharmacist

Reports to: GP Partner (Prescribing Lead)

JOB SUMMARY

The post holder will be a pharmacist, who acts within their professional boundaries, supporting and working alongside a healthcare and dispensary team in general practice. They will be responsible for supporting the partners in implementing effective medicine management within the practice, identifying areas for improvement, and initiating and managing change. They will act as line manager for the Pharmacy Team as a whole, focussing on providing support to colleagues, ensuring effective delegation, a well-functioning team and acting as first point of contact for HR matters within the team.

The post holder will ensure that primary support to general practice staff is provided with regards to prescription and medication queries. They will ensure that their team helps to support with the repeat prescriptions system, deal with acute prescription requests, and medicines reconciliation on transfer of care and systems for safer prescribing, providing expertise in clinical medicines advice while addressing both public and social care needs of patient in the GP practice(s).

The post holder will provide clinical leadership on medicines optimisation and quality improvement and manage some aspects of the quality and outcomes framework and enhanced services.

The post holder will ensure that the practice integrates 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.

There is scope for the right candidate to develop the job role in the future to include other elements such as Long-term Condition management in a clinic setting for example.

Primary Duties and Areas of Responsibility

Build and Lead the Practice Pharmacy Team

Provide leadership and support for the entire Pharmacy Team, ensuring workload is effectively managed and delegated. Act as first point of contact regarding HR relating queries, ensuring that Pharmacy Team are working within Practice Protocols and Policies.

Support the practice with recruitment to ensure that the team remains robust and effective.

Identify and manage areas of development and concern and raise appropriately with Partners. Provide information to the HR Lead as necessary to ensure HR records are up to date.

Medicine information to practice staff

Ensure medicinerelated queries from GPs, other practice staff and other healthcare teams (e.g. community pharmacy, frailty service nurses, care home ANPs) are answered. Suggesting and recommending solutions.

Repeat prescribing

Collaborate on 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 by working alongside our experienced admin team.

Conduct structured medication reviews.

Management of medicines at discharge from hospital

To ensure medicines are reconciled 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).

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.

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 audits of prescribing in areas requiring review, feedback the results and implement changes in conjunction with the pharmacy team.

Medicines safety

Implement changes to medicines that result from MHRA alerts, product withdrawal and other local and national guidance. Work with the Dispensary Team to ensure all alerts, supply notifications and recalls are actioned appropriately.

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). Auditing practices compliance against NICE technology assessment guidance. Provide newsletters or bulletins on important prescribing messages.

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.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Completion of an undergraduate degree in pharmacy and registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council.
• Expected to undertake CPPE training (unless already completed).

Desirable

• May hold or be working towards an independent prescribing qualification.
• May hold a minor ailments qualification
• May be clinical systems trained (SystemOne)

Experience

Essential

• 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

Other

Essential

• Full driving licence/Ability to travel to all sites

Knowledge/Skills

Essential

• 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.
• 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
• Demonstrates an ability to lead and support colleagues within the practice pharmacy team.
• Engages with Patient Participation Groups (PPGs) and involves PPGs in development of the role and practices
• Demonstrates ability to improve quality within limitations of service
• Reviews yearly progress and develops clear plans to achieve results within priorities set by others.
• Demonstrate ability to motivate self to achieve goals
• Promotes diversity and equality in people management techniques and leads by example.

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).

Employer details

Employer name

Phoenix Health Group

Address

9 Chesterton Lane

Cirencester

Gloucestershire

GL7 1XG

Employer's website

https://www.phoenixhealthgroup.co.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)