Clinical Pharmacist

Job responsibilities

PRIMARY KEY RESPONSIBLITIES

A Clinical Pharmacist in a general practice organisation has the following key responsibilities in relation to delivering health services.

1. Be a prescriber and work with and alongside the general practice team

2. Work as part of a multi-disciplinary team in a patient facing role to clinically assess and treat patients using their expert knowledge of medicines

3. Undertake clinical structured medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations to the GP on prescribing and monitoring.

4. Proactively manage people with complex polypharmacy, especially the elderly, people in care homes, those with multiple co-morbidities and people with learning disabilities or autism (through STOMP – Stop Over Medication Programme)

5. Provide specialist expertise in the use of medicines whilst helping to address the public health care needs and to help address health inequalities

6. 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

7. Through structured medication reviews, support patients to take their medications to get the best from them, reduce waste and promote self-care

8. Have a leadership role in supporting further integration of general practice with the wider healthcare teams (including community and hospital pharmacy) to help improve patient outcomes, ensure better access to healthcare and help manage general practice workload

9. Take a central role in the clinical aspects of shared care protocols, clinical research with medicines, liaison with specialist pharmacists where required.

10. To act as the point of contact for all medicine related matters, establishing positive working relationships

11. To consult patients within defined levels of competence and independently prescribe acute and repeat medication

12. To receive referrals and directed patients from triage services and other clinicians

13. To receive and resolve medicines queries from patients and staff

14. To manage a therapeutic drug monitoring system and the recall of patients taking high risk drugs, i.e., anticoagulants, anticonvulsants and DMARDs etc.

15. To provide pharmaceutical consultations as required, being an integral part of the multidisciplinary team

16. To review medications for newly registered patients

17. To support patients with confidence and compliance with their medication

18. To encourage cost-effective prescribing throughout the Practice

19. To produce and implement a Practice repeat prescribing policy

20. To provide advice and answer medication related queries from patients and staff

21. To organise and oversee the organisation’s medicines optimisation systems including the repeat prescribing and medication review systems

22. To improve the quality and effectiveness of prescribing through clinical audit and education to improve performance against NICE standards and clinical and prescribing guidance.

23. To develop yourself and the role through participation in clinical supervision, training and service redesign activities

24. To ensure appropriate supervision of safe storage, rotation and disposal of vaccines and drugs. To apply infection-control measures within the practice according to local and national guidelines

25. To review the latest guidance ensuring the organisation conforms to NICE, CQC etc.

26. To provide targeted support and proactive reviews for vulnerable, complex patients and those at risk of admission and re-admission to secondary care

27. To provide proactive leadership on medicines and prescribing systems to the Practice and patient population

28. To support in the delivery of enhanced services and other service requirements on behalf of the Practice

29. Involvement in any necessary learning brought about through clinical incidents and near-miss events

30. To undertake all mandatory training as required

31. To contribute to clinical governance

32. To contribute to public health campaigns (e.g., COVID-19 or flu clinics) through advice or direct care

Qualifications

Essential

• Completion of an undergraduate degree in Pharmacy
• Hold GPhC independent prescribing qualification
• Registration with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society

Desirable

• Post-graduate Diploma in Clinical Pharmacy
• Successful completion of the CPPE Clinical Pharmacist training pathways

Personal Attributes

Essential

• Ability to maintain confidentiality
• Ability to follow legal, ethical, professional and organisational policies/procedures and codes of conduct
• Ability to use own initiative, discretion and sensitivity
• Able to get along with people from all backgrounds and communities, respecting lifestyles and diversity
• Flexible and cooperative
• Ability to identify risk and assess/manage risk when working with individuals
• Sensitive and empathetic in distressing situations
• Problem solving and analytical skills
• Knowledge of and ability to work to Practice Policies and Procedures

Skills

Essential

• Ability to communicate complex and sensitive information effectively with people at all levels by telephone, email and face to face
• Excellent interpersonal, influencing, negotiation and organisational skills
• Ability to promote best practice regarding all pharmaceutical matters
• Effective time management (planning and organising)
• Demonstrate personal accountability, emotional resilience and work well under pressure
• Clear, polite telephone manner

Desirable

• Ability to plan, manage, monitor, advise and review general medicine
• optimisation issues in core areas for long term conditions
• Good clinical system IT knowledge of EMIS/Docman/AccuRx

Experience

Essential

• Qualified pharmacist demonstrably established as practicing at an advanced level, demonstrated within a practice portfolio
• An appreciation of the nature of primary care prescribing, concepts of rational prescribing and strategies for improving prescribing
• Experience and an awareness of common acute and chronic conditions that are likely to be seen in general practice
• An appreciation of the new NHS landscape including the relationships between individual practices, PCNs and the commissioners

Desirable

• Experience in managing pharmacy services in primary care

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).