General Practice Clinical Pharmacist

Job responsibilities

Primary Duties and Areas of Responsibility

Patient facing long-term condition and medication review clinics:

• See patients with single or multiple medical problems where medicine optimisation is required (e.g. diabetes, hypertension, heart failure), or where patients are prescribed large numbers of medicines or combinations with identifiable risks. Review the ongoing medicine plan for these patients, ensuring they get the best use of their medicines and action and/or make appropriate recommendations to clinicians for medicine improvement
• Medicines support and advice in person or by telephone
• Provide patient facing clinics or telephone support for those with questions, queries and concerns about their medicines in the practice.

Medicine information to practice staff and patients

• Respond to medicine related enquiries from GPs, other practice staff, other healthcare teams (e.g. community pharmacy) and patients/carers with queries about medicines.
• Suggesting and recommending solutions.
• Providing follow up for patients to monitor the effect of any changes.

Unplanned hospital admissions

• Provide targeted support and proactive review for vulnerable, complex patients and those at risk of admission and re-admission to secondary care
• Management of medicines at discharge from hospital
• To reconcile medicines following discharge from hospitals, intermediate care and into care homes, working with patients and community pharmacists to ensure patients receive the medicines they need post discharge.

Signposting

• Ensure that patients are referred in a timely manner to the appropriate healthcare professional for the appropriate level of care (e.g. pathology results, common/minor ailments, acute conditions, long term condition reviews etc.)

Repeat prescribing

• Support safe and timely repeat prescribing, repeat dispensing, electronic prescribing and medication review systems. 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).
• Develop specialist area(s) of interest.

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 directed by the lead practice pharmacist, 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/national guidelines and formulary recommendations
• Support the development and implementation of medicines-related procedures within the practice, including appropriate acceptance of amber (shared care) drugs, medicines monitoring and recalls.
• Support the agreement and review of Prescribing Formularies and Protocols and monitor & address compliance/adherence levels.

Cost Effectiveness:

• Support the delivery of QOF, incentive schemes, QIPP and other quality or cost effectiveness initiatives.

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 (including vaccination) campaigns. To provide specialist knowledge on all public health programmes available to the general public.

Qualifications

Essential

• Must be registered as a pharmacist with the General Pharmaceutical Council
• Will undertake or can demonstrate exemption from CPPEs Primary Care Pharmacy Education Programme
• Hold, be working towards, or willing to complete an independent prescribing qualification
• Demonstrates an understanding of, and conforms to, relevant standards of practice
• Follows professional and organisational policies/procedures relating to performance management

Desirable

• Membership of Primary Care Pharmacy Association (PCPA)
• Membership of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society

Personal Attributes

Essential

• Ability to maintain effective working relationships and to promote collaborative practice with all colleagues
• Demonstrates use of appropriate communication to gain the
• co-operation of relevant stakeholders
• Can recognise personal limitations and refer to more appropriate colleague(s) when necessary
• Ability to identify risk and assess/manage risk when working with individuals
• Demonstrates accountability for delivering professional expertise and direct service provision
• Ability to organise, plan and prioritise on own initiative, including when under pressure, ensuring deadlines are met
• High levels of attention to detail and decision making skills
• High level of written and oral communication skills
• Ability to work flexibly and enthusiastically within a team or on own initiative
• Knowledge of and ability to work to policies and procedures, including confidentiality, safeguarding, lone working, information governance, and health and safety
• Excellent interpersonal, influencing and negotiating skills
• Demonstrate the ability to communicate complex and sensitive information in an understandable form to a variety of audiences (e.g. patients)
• Recognise priorities when problem solving and identifies deviations from the normal pattern, knowing when to escalate
• Understanding of the wider determinants of health, including social, economic and environmental factors and their impact on communities
• Be able to work well independently and as a team member
• An appreciation of the nature of primary care prescribing, concepts of rational prescribing and strategies for improving prescribing

Experience

Essential

• Experience and awareness of the breadth of common acute and long-terms conditions that are likely to be seen in general practice
• Demonstrates ability to integrate general practice with community and hospital pharmacy teams community groups
• In depth therapeutic and clinical knowledge and understanding of the principles of evidence-based healthcare

Desirable

• Experience of working in primary care
• Experience of working in a GP practice

Other

Essential

• Current Enhanced DBS
• Safeguarding and other mandatory training

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).