Clinical Pharmacist

Job description

Job responsibilities

Job Overview:The post holder is a Pharmacist registered with the GPHC, who acts within their professional boundaries, supporting and working alongside a team of pharmacists in general practice.

The post holder will work as part of a multi-disciplinary team in a patient-facing role, working with colleagues to help resolve medication-related issues, helping to utilise skill mix, improve patient outcomes, ensure better access to healthcare and help manage workload.

The post holder will provide primary support to general practice staff with regards to prescription and medication queries. They will help support the repeat prescription 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 support practices across the Primary Care Network and provide support for medicines optimisation and quality improvement. They will manage some aspects of the Quality and Outcomes framework and enhanced services and support practices to deliver on QIPP . They will be aware of the prescribing budget and identify and action areas for cost improvement

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 post holder will be involved with areas of chronic disease management within the practice and undertake clinical medication reviews to proactively manage patients with complex polypharmacy.

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 nonmedical prescriber.

Responsibilities and DutiesMedicine reviews:

Conduct telephone, face-to-face, virtual and domiciliary (where appropriate) clinical medication reviews to proactively manage patients including those with complex polypharmacy

Review the on-going need for each medication, ensuring monitoring needs are performed and an opportunity to support patients achieve better health outcomes

Reduce inappropriate poly-pharmacy and wasteful prescribing. Make appropriate recommendations

Repeat prescribing:

Advise 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.

Medicine information to practice staff and patients:

Answers relevant medicine-related enquiries from GPs, other practice staff, other healthcare teams (e.g. community pharmacy) and patients queries about medicines.

Suggesting and recommending solutions.

Providing follow up for patients to monitor the effect of any changes

Medicine Management including Risk stratification:

Ensure Drug monitoring robust systems are in place for drug monitoring in practice, streamlining these where possible.

Develop and implement ways to improve monitoring of high-risk medication such as anticoagulants, anticonvulsants, and DMARDs, etc

Monitor practice prescribing against local guidelines and formulary recommendations

Identification of cohorts of patients at high risk of harm from medicines through pre-prepared practice computer searches

Develop prescribing guidelines for use within the practice and the PCN

Help increase uptake of Electronic Repeat Dispensing where required

Telephone medicines support:

Provide telephone support for patients with questions, queries and concerns about their medicines.

Patient facing medicines support:

Provide patient facing and/or virtual appointments or clinics for those with questions, queries and concerns about their medicines in the practice

Patient facing clinical medication review:

Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for senior clinical pharmacist, nurses and/or GP on prescribing and monitoring.

For patients with longterm condition 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). Make appropriate recommendations to GPs for medicine improvement.

See (where appropriate either face to face or using video consultation) patients with single or multiple medical problems where medicine optimisation is required (e.g. COPD, asthma).

In conjunction with the CCG Medicines Optimisation Pharmacy team undertake clinical medication reviews with patients in Care Homes and produce recommendations for the senior clinical pharmacist, nurses or GPs on prescribing and monitoring.

Work with care home staff to improve safety of medicines ordering and administration.

Undertake clinical medication reviews with housebound patients and those requiring domiciliary visits. Produce recommendations for nurses and GPs on prescribing and monitoring.

Attend and refer patients to multidisciplinary case conferences.

Management of common/minor/self-limiting ailments:

Managing patients with common/minor/self-limiting ailments while working within a scope of practice and limits of competence.

Signposting to comm pharmacy, referring to GPs/ and other healthcare professionals where appropriate,

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 prescribing of these medicines to highrisk groups.

Management of medicines on discharge from hospital:

To reconcile medicines 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 highrisk groups of patients (e.g. those with medicine compliance aids or those in care homes).

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.

Medicines safety & quality improvement:

Implement changes to medicines that result from MHRA alerts, product withdrawal and other local and national guidance.

Undertake clinical audits of prescribing in areas directed by the GPs, feedback the results and implement changes in conjunction with the practice team.

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).

Assist practices in seeing and maintaining a practice formulary that is hosted on the practices computer system.

Auditing practices compliance against NICE technology assessment guidance.

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 campaigns.

To provide specialist knowledge on all public health programmes available to the general public.

Qualifications /Required experience

Degree in Pharmacy, MPharm/BPharm

GPhC Registered

Full driving licence

Desired experience

General Practice and understanding of medicines optimisation roles

Member of the RPS

IP Qualified or working toward an IP qualification

Clinical Diploma

Minor ailments qualification

Clinical systems trained (Emis)

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• GPhC registered Pharmacist
• Hold or be working towards an GPhC independent prescribing qualification

Desirable

• Medicines Management Qualification
• MUR and repeat dispensing certification
• Minor ailments certification
• Membership of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society
• Working towards faculty membership of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society

Experience

Essential

• Minimum of two years working as a pharmacist demonstrated within a practice portfolio
• An appreciation of the nature of GPs and general practice. An appreciation of the nature of primary care prescribing, concepts of rational prescribing and strategies for improving prescribing
• Experience in managing pharmacy services in primary care
• Experience and an awareness of common acute and chronic conditions that are likely to be seen in general practice
• Broad knowledge of general practice

Desirable

• In-depth therapeutic and clinical knowledge and understanding of the principles of evidence-based healthcare
• Understanding of the mentorship process
• An appreciation of the new NHS landscape including the relationships between individual practices, PCNs and the commissioners

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

Kelsall Medical Centre

Address

7 Green Hill Road

Off Chester Road

Kelsall

Cheshire

CW6 0SN

Employer's website

http://www.kelsallmedicalcentre.org.uk (Opens in a new tab)