Primary Care Network Clinical Pharmacist

Job responsibilities

The post holder will work within their clinical competence as part of a multi-disciplinary team toprovide expertise in clinical medicines management. This involves providing face to face structuredmedication reviews, managing long term conditions, ensuring safe prescribing at the transfer ofcare, implementing systems for safer prescribing, repeat prescription reauthorisation and dealingwith acute prescription requests.

The post holder will perform face to face medication review of patients with poly pharmacy ,especially for older people, people in residential care homes and those with multiple comorbidities.

The post holder will provide leadership on quality improvement and clinical audit, and managesome aspects of the Quality and Outcomes Framework.

This role is pivotal to improving the quality of care and operational efficiencies so requiresmotivation and passion to deliver an excellent service within general practice.

The post holder will be supported to develop their role to become a non-medical prescriber, if thatqualification is not already held.

Patient Facing Long-Term Conditions Clinics

See (where appropriate) patients with single or multiple medical problems wheremedicine optimisation is required (e.g. COPD, asthma).

Review the on-going need for each medicine, a review of monitoring needs and anopportunity to support patients with their medicines taking ensuring they get the bestuse of their medicines (i.e. medicines optimisation). Make appropriate recommendationsto GPs for medicine improvement.

Patient facing Clinical Medication Review

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

Patient facing Care Home Medication Review

Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations forthe senior clinical pharmacist, nurses or GPs on prescribing and monitoring.

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

Patient facing domiciliary clinical medication review

Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations forthe senior clinical pharmacists, nurses and GPs on prescribing and monitoring.

Attend and refer patients to multidisciplinary case conferences.

Management of common/minor/self-limiting ailments

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

Signposting to community pharmacy and referring to GPs or other healthcareprofessionals where appropriatePatient facing Medicines Support.

Provide patient facing clinics for those with questions, queries and concerns about theirmedicines in the practice.

Medicine Information to Practice Staff and Patients

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

Suggesting and recommending solutions.

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

Unplanned Hospital admissions

Review the use of medicines most commonly associated with unplanned hospitaladmissions and readmissions through audit and individual patient reviews.

Put in place changes to reduce the prescribing of these medicines to highrisk patientgroups.

Management of medicines at discharge from hospital

To reconcile medicines following discharge from hospitals, intermediate care and intocare homes, including identifying and rectifying unexplained changes and working withpatients and community pharmacists to ensure patients receive the medicines they needpost discharge.

Set up and manage systems to ensure continuity of medicines supply to highrisk groupsof patients (e.g. those with medicine compliance aids or those in care homes).

Service Development

Contribute pharmaceutical advice for the development and implementation of newservices that have medicinal components (e.g. advice on treatment pathways and patientinformation leaflets).

Medicines quality improvement

Undertake clinical audits of prescribing in areas directed by the GPs, feedback the resultsand 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 makerecommendations to GPs for medicines that should be prescribed by hospital doctors (reddrugs) or subject to shared care (amber drugs).

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

Auditing practices compliance against NICE technology assessment guidance.

Operating arrangements:

Responsibility for one or more sites dependent upon patient list size.

Based across one or more sites with the opportunity to work remotely from other sites.

This is an evolving role and the responsibilities may augment over time in consultationwith the post-holder.

From time to time the post-holder may be required to work from other sites.

Other Tasks

Duties may be varied from time to time under the direction of the line managerdependent on current and evolving practice workload and staffing levels.

Other administration and professional responsibilities:

Participate in the administrative and professional responsibilities of the practiceteam.

Ensure appropriate items of service claims are made accurately, reporting anyproblems to the practice administrator

Ensure collection and maintenance of any required statistical information.

Attend and participate in practice meetings as required.

Training and personal development:

Maintain professional registration with the GPhC.

If it is necessary to expand the role to include additional responsibilities, full trainingwill be given.

Experience

Essential

• Minimum of 2 years post qualification experience.
• An appreciation of the nature of
• Lakeside Healthcare as an
• organisation within the PCN
• framework.
• An appreciation of the nature of
• primary care prescribing, concepts
• of rational prescribing, and
• strategies for improving
• prescribing.
• Excellent interpersonal skills.
• Excellent written and verbal
• communication skills.
• Demonstrate the ability to
• communicate complex and
• sensitive information in an
• understandable form to a variety
• of audiences (e.g. patients, cares
• and practice staff).
• Good IT skills.

Desirable

• Experience of working across
• multiple sectors of Pharmacy
• (Community Pharmacy, Hospital
• Pharmacy, CCGs, Industry).
• Experience of working in general
• practice.
• Experience of using SystemOne.
• In depth therapeutic and clinical
• knowledge and understanding
• of the principles of evidence based healthcare.
• Is able to plan, manage, monitor,
• advise and review general
• medicine optimisation issues in
• core areas for long term
• conditions.
• Gain acceptance for
• recommendations and
• influences/motivate/ persuade
• the audience to comply with the
• recommendations/agreed
• course of action where there
• may be significant barriers.

Qualifications

Essential

• Masters degree in pharmacy
• (MPharm) (or equivalent).
• Independent prescriber or
• working towards/intent of
• gaining independent prescribing
• qualification.

Desirable

• Specialist knowledge acquired
• through postgraduate diploma
• level or equivalent
• training/experience.

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).