Job responsibilities
The post holder is a clinical pharmacist, who acts within their professional boundaries,supporting and working alongside a team of Health Care Practitioners within general practice and a Primary Care Network (PCN).
The post holder will provide primary support to general practice staff with regards toprescription and medication queries. They will perform medicines reconciliation on transfer of care and implement systems for safer prescribing, providing expertise in clinical
medicines advice while addressing both public and social care needs of patients in the PCN.
The post holder will work as part of a multi-disciplinary team in a patient-facing role. Theywill take responsibility for areas of medicines optimisation within the PCN and undertake
structured clinical medication reviews to proactively manage patients with complexpolypharmacy.
The post holder will provide clinical leadership on medicines optimisation and qualityimprovement (QI) and manage some aspects of the quality and outcomes framework and
enhanced services at practice and PCN level.
The post holder will work with all sectors of pharmacy across the health system and its member practices to improve population health. Demonstrating improvement in patient outcomes and working to reduce health inequalities across the PCN contributing to improving the efficiency of general practice and delivering a best-in-class service.
The post holder will provide support to practice staff with regards to prescription and medication queries, ensuring integration with community and hospital pharmacy to help utilise skill mix, improve patient outcomes, ensure better access to healthcare, and help manage GP workload.
Job summary
- Work as part of a multi-disciplinary team in a patient facing role to clinically assess and treat patients using your expert knowledge of medicines for specific disease areas.
- Be a prescriber or completing training to become a prescriber and working alongside the general practice team.
- Be responsible for the care management of patients with chronic diseases and undertake clinical medication reviews to proactively manage people with complex polypharmacy, especially older people, people in care homes, those with multiple co-morbidities (frailty, COPD and asthma) and people with learning disabilities or autism (through STOMP Stop Over Medication Programme).
- Provide specialise expertise in the use of medicines whilst helping to address both the public health and social care needs of patients at the PCNs practice(s) and to help tackling inequalities.
- Provide leadership on person-centred medicines optimisation (including ensuring prescribers in the practice conserve antibiotics in line with local antimicrobial stewardship guidance) and quality improvement, whilst contributing to the quality and outcomes framework and enhanced services.
- Through structured medication reviews, support patients to take their medications to get the best from them, reduce waste and promote self-care.
- Developing relationships and working closely with other pharmacy professionals across the PCN and wider health and social care system.
- Take a central role in the clinical aspects of shared care protocols, clinical research with medicines, liaison with specialist pharmacists (including mental health and reduction of inappropriate antipsychotic use in people with learning disabilities). Liaison with community pharmacists and anticoagulation.
- Supervising the PCN pharmacy technician(s).
Clinical Responsibilities:
- Design, develop and implement searches to identify cohorts of patient at high risk of harm from medicines.
- Providing a mixture of telephone and face to face clinical medication reviews with patients.
- Clinical medication reviews for patients with single or multiple long-term conditions where medicines optimisation is required.
- To reconcile medicines following discharge from hospitals or intermediate care and working with patients and community pharmacies to ensure patients receive the medicines they need post-discharge and to reduce risk of readmission.
- To be involved in multidisciplinary clinical meetings within the PCN.
- To manage repeat prescription requests, resolving queries where possible within scope of practice. To ensure patients have appropriate monitoring tests in place when required.
- Implement changes to medicines in line with MHRA alerts, product withdrawal or shortage and other local or national guidance.
- To maintain full and complete records of all patient contacts using appropriate clinical templates and coding.
- To undertake a proactive role in audit and quality improvement implementing recommendations where appropriate.
- Provide independent information to patients about medicines and prescribing changes, initiating further support from other healthcare professionals where appropriate.
- To identify areas of clinical risk at network level and make recommendations to support the introduction of new working practices that will optimise the quality of prescribing and make more efficient use of network resources.
- To monitor network practices prescribing against the local health economy and make recommendations for GPs or amend within scope of practice, based on findings.
- To maintain own clinical and professional competence and be responsible for own continuous professional development.
- Work with practices to ensure full compliance with Care Quality Commission standards for safe and effective care.
Communication
Communicate effectively with other team members.
Communicate effectively with patients and carers, recognising their needs for alternative methods of communication.
Enthusiastic about health promotion and lifestyle change.
Personal and people development
Take responsibility for own developmental learning and performance, including participating in supervision.
Take responsibility for maintaining a record of own personal development.
Work with management on any new training requirements.
To recognise and understand the roles and responsibilities of individuals working in the primary health care team.
Experience of motivational interviewing.
Other responsibilities
- Participate in annual appraisal which will include staff multi source feedback (MSF) and patient survey.
- Supporting the practice staff and responding to requests for advice and assistance from the practice reception, secretarial and nursing staff.
- Attend prescribing, palliative care, virtual ward round, clinical and practice meetings.
- Provide additional enhanced services to the practices that meet the needs of the practices patient population and maximise the income streams to the practice.
- Undertake additional training where necessary to provide these enhanced services
- Awareness of and compliance with all relevant practice policies/guidelines, e.g., prescribing, confidentiality, data protection, health, and safety, annual QOF/IIF Assessment of the network.
- Meet timescales/deadlines for audits and written returns to ensure that the Practice meets quality standards and receives the designated funding (e.g., Quarterly Enhanced Services returns, annual QOF/IIF audit etc.).
Service improvement
- Be aware of and assist in current clinical audit.
- Work with colleagues in the team on the development of current and new services and other initiatives.
- Deal with requests from patients and clinical staff for health information leaflets.
Quality
- Alert other team members to issues of quality and risk in the care of patients.
- Ensure own actions are consistent with clinical governance systems.
- Practice in accordance with agreed standards of care.
- Enable patients to access appropriate professionals in the team.
- Ensure stock items under your control are ordered and available in the treatment and consulting rooms.
- Know the practice's policies, especially the whistle-blowing policy, available in the practice staff handbook.
- Be able to manage your own time effectively.
Clinical governance
- Ensure that consultations are undertaken safely in line with the organisations health and safety policies.
- Ensure that patient identifiable information and smart cards are transported in line with the information governance policy.
- Ensure accurate and legible notes of all consultations and treatments are recorded promptly in the patients notes on SystmOne.
- To ensure the safety of patients, relatives, and colleagues and to report all incidents and near misses in line with the risk management policy.
- To remain up to date with all mandatory training.
- To maintain up-to-date knowledge of safeguarding adult and children guidance to ensure that those at risk of abuse/suffering abuse are identified and the necessary process to protect them is followed.
- To meet responsibilities as an employee as set out in the organisations corporate and clinical policies.
- To always maintain confidentiality.
This JD is not intended to be an exhaustive list of activities but rather an outline of the main areas of responsibility. The role is likely to evolve to meet the changing needs of the service.
