Practice Pharmacist

Job description

Job responsibilities

Primary duties and areas of responsibility

Clinics/Clinical assessment (Tasks/AccuRx)

Conduct both face-to-face and telephone consultations with patients diagnosed with one or more medical conditions, where medicinal intervention is necessary (e.g., COPD, asthma).

For post holders who are independent prescribers, prescribe safe, effective, and appropriate medications in accordance with current clinical guidelines and relevant legislation.

Clinical medication review

Conduct clinical medication reviews with patients, providing recommendations to senior clinical pharmacists, nurses, and/or GPs regarding prescribing and monitoring decisions.

Assess the ongoing necessity of each medication, review monitoring requirements, and use each consultation as an opportunity to support patients in managing their medication effectively, ensuring optimal use of their medicines through medicines optimisation and structured medication reviews.

Care home medication reviews

Conduct clinical medication reviews for patients, collaborating with care home staff and community pharmacists to enhance the safety of medication ordering and administration processes.

Domiciliary clinical medication review

Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients, providing recommendations to a multi-disciplinary healthcare team regarding prescribing and monitoring.

Attend multi-disciplinary case conferences and refer patients as needed.

Management of common/minor/self-limiting ailments

Manage a caseload of patients with common, minor, or self-limiting conditions, working within the scope of practice and limits of competence.

Signpost patients to community pharmacies and refer to GPs or other healthcare professionals when necessary.

Medicines support

Offer patient-facing or telephone clinics to address questions, concerns, and queries regarding medicines.

Respond to medicine-related inquiries from GPs, practice staff, other healthcare teams (e.g., community pharmacists), and patients.

Suggest appropriate solutions and follow up with patients to assess the impact of any medication changes.

Unplanned hospital admissions

Review the use of medicines frequently associated with unplanned hospital admissions and readmissions through audits and individual patient reviews.

Implement strategies to reduce the prescribing of high-risk medications in vulnerable patient groups.

Management of medicines at discharge from hospital

Work with the Medicines Management Team (MMT) to reconcile medications following discharge from hospitals, intermediate care, and care homes.

Identify and rectify unexplained medication changes, collaborating with patients and community pharmacists to ensure continuity of care post-discharge.

Establish systems to maintain a consistent supply of medications for high-risk patients (e.g., those using compliance aids or in care homes).

Signposting

Ensure that patients are referred to the appropriate healthcare professional for timely care, including pathology results, common/minor ailments, acute conditions, and long-term condition reviews.

Repeat prescribing

Implement the practice's repeat prescribing policy and reauthorization process.

Ensure that patients undergo necessary monitoring tests when required.

Risk stratification

Identify patient cohorts at high risk of harm from medicines through pre-prepared practice computer searches, considering both patient- and medication-related risks.

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

Conduct clinical audits of prescribing practices, providing feedback and implementing improvements in collaboration with the practice team.

Medicines safety

Implement changes in response to MHRA alerts, product withdrawals, and other local or national guidance to enhance medicines safety.

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 clinicians (red drugs) or subject to shared care (amber drugs).

Audit the Practices compliance against NICE technology assessment guidance.

Provide newsletters or bulletins on important prescribing messages.

Education and training

Provide education and training to the primary healthcare team on therapeutics and medicines optimisation.

Care Quality Commission

Collaborate with the general practice team to ensure compliance with CQC standards related to medicines management.

Public health

Support public health campaigns and provide expert knowledge on available public health programmes.

Collaborative working relationships

Acknowledge the roles of colleagues in patient care, fostering effective communication to engage relevant stakeholders, including patients, senior and peer colleagues, and external professionals.

Actively develop and maintain strong relationships within and outside the practice, exploring opportunities for collaborative working and initiating partnerships.

Demonstrate integration between General Practice and Community/Hospital Pharmacy teams and liaise with ICB colleagues to ensure consistent patient care and enhance patient outcomes.

Knowledge, skills and experience required

Hold an undergraduate degree in pharmacy and be registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council.

Possess experience and awareness of common acute and long-term conditions typically encountered in general practice

Recognise priorities when problem-solving and identify deviations from the norm, referring to senior professionals when necessary.

Adhere to legal, ethical, professional, and organizational policies, involving patients in decisions about their medications and supporting adherence in line with NICE guidelines.

NB: it is anticipated that the level of qualification held may vary according to the level of position and the components of the role being carried out, see person specification for details.

Leadership:

Demonstrate an understanding of the pharmacy role in governance and implement it effectively within the workplace.

Engage with Patient Participation Groups (PPGs) to shape the role and practice development.

Contribute to quality improvement initiatives, setting clear plans to achieve goals.

Motivate oneself and others to meet service objectives and deliver high standards of care.

Management:

Understand the impact of national priorities on the team and service, ensuring effective resource utilization.

Conform to relevant standards of practice and address risk management issues according to policy and protocol.

Research and Evaluation:

Critically evaluate literature and identify gaps in the evidence base to inform practice.

Generate evidence suitable for local presentations and apply research findings to improve workplace practices.

Person Specification

Experience

Desirable

• Experience in working with computerised health care systems.
• At least 1 years post qualification experience in General Practice, hospital or community pharmacy.
• Previous experience of working in triage or unscheduled care service.

Qualifications

Essential

• Registrant of General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) and commitment to CPD.

Desirable

• Member of Professional Body e.g. Royal Pharmaceutical Society.
• Hold post graduate clinical Diploma or equivalent.
• Independent prescriber.
• Completion of either the Primary care pharmacy education pathway, or MSc Advanced Practice Pathway.

Work Related Circumstances

Essential

• Flexibility with working hours/ base to meet the needs of the service and patients.
• Willingness to travel to educational sessions and to fully partake in development courses and opportunities.

Skills and Abilities

Essential

• Excellent communication skills, with patients and healthcare professionals.
• Ability to form and maintain good working relationships within a multi-disciplinary team and work effectively as a team member.
• Ability to apply therapeutic knowledge to clinical situations and to tailor the information to suit the recipient.
• Recognises personal limitations and ability to seek expert advice where appropriate.
• Ability to work calmly and accurately under pressure to meet required deadlines.
• Ability to work autonomously and to make clinically based judgements.
• Ability to work in difficult/emotive situations.

Knowledge

Essential

• Working knowledge and understanding of pharmaceutical standards and national guidelines.
• Advanced IT skills.

Desirable

• Interest in improving polypharmacy outcomes.
• Specialist area of clinical interest.

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

Bay Medical Group

Address

Heysham Primary Care Centre

Middleton Way

Heysham

Morecambe

Lancashire

LA3 2LE

Employer's website

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