Job responsibilities
The postholder will support the Senior Clinical Pharmacist to ensure that the Practices integrate with community and hospital pharmacy to help utilise skill mix, improve patient outcomes, ensure better access to healthcare and help manage workload. The role is pivotal to improving the quality of care and operational efficiencies, so requires motivation and passion to deliver an excellent service within General Practice.
The postholder will support the Senior Clinical Pharmacist with clinical leadership on medicines optimisation and quality improvement in relation to prescribing. Across the PCN Practices and PCN services, the postholder will support the Senior Clinical Pharmacist with delivery of the following:
- Ensuring that safe systems are place with regards to prescribing
- Ensuring all that systems are in place to ensure that all current national and local guidance with regards to prescribing is introduced and followed
- Providing leadership and coordination of prescribing actions and targets as required from Practice contracts, QOF, PCN DES, IIF, local contracts and any new NHS requirements that may present
- Ensuring staff are working efficiently and to their full potential
- Ensuring effective communication within the team and assume role of Chair to lead on team meetings in the Senior Clinical Pharmacist's absence
Team Leadership and Pharmaceutical oversight of Practice and PCN
See above
Patient facing long-term condition clinics
See patients in multimorbidity clinics and in partnership with primary healthcare colleagues and implement improvements to patients medicines, including de-prescribing
Manage own caseload and run long-term condition clinics where responsible for prescribing as an independent prescriber for conditions where medicines have a large component (e.g., medicine optimisation for stable angina symptom control, warfarin monitoring and dose adjustment for patients requiring longterm anticoagulants)
Review the ongoing need for each medicine, a review of monitoring needs and an opportunity to support patients with the medicines they are taking ensuring they get the best use of their medicines (i.e., medicines optimisation)
Patient facing clinical medication review
Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients with multimorbidity and polypharmacy and implement own prescribing changes (as an independent prescriber) and order relevant monitoring tests
Patient facing care home / residential clinical medication reviews
Manage own caseload of care home residents
Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients with multimorbidity and polypharmacy and implement own prescribing changes (as an independent prescriber) and order relevant monitoring tests
Work with care home staff to improve safety of medicines ordering and administration
Patient facing domiciliary / home visits
Manage own caseload of vulnerable housebound patients at risk of hospital admission and harm from poor use of medicines
Implement own prescribing changes (as an independent prescriber) order relevant monitoring tests
Attend and refer patients to multidisciplinary case conferences
Identify key areas of need for vulnerable patients and formulating care plans
Management of common / minor / self-limiting ailments
Manage a caseload of patients with common/minor/self-limiting ailments while working within a scope of Practice and limits of competence
Where appropriate signpost to community pharmacy and refer to GPs or other healthcare professionals
Differential / undifferential diagnosis
Manage own caseload of patients and diagnose people with long-term and/or acute/common conditions/ailments while remaining within scope of Practice and limits of competence
Be aware of own ability and scope of Practice and thus refer to the GP and/or other healthcare professionals where further clinical expertise and evaluation may be needed
Patient facing medicines support
Provide patient facing clinics for those with questions, queries and concerns about their medicines in the Practice
Telephone medicines support
Provide a telephone help line for patients with questions, queries and concerns about their medicines.
Enhanced hours
Provide out of hours/on call/enhanced access services for the Practice and the patients as and when required. These can include patient facing and telephone consultations, signposting to other services and/or healthcare professionals where appropriate, while working within a scope of Practice and limits of competency
Medicine information to Practice staff and patients
Answer all medicine related enquiries from GPs, other Practice staff, other healthcare teams (e.g., community pharmacy) and patients with queries about aspects of their medicine
Suggest and recommend solutions
Provide follow up for patients to monitor the effect of any changes made
Management of medicines at discharge from hospital
Reconcile medicines following discharge from hospitals, intermediate care and into care homes, including identifying and rectifying unexplained changes manage these changes without referral to a GP, unless necessary
Perform a clinical medication review, produce a post discharge medicines care plan including dose titration and booking of follow up tests, work 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 high-risk groups of patients (e.g., those with medicine compliance aids or those in care homes)
Work in partnership with hospital colleagues to proactively manage patients at high-risk of medicine related problems before they are discharged to ensure continuity of care
Repeat prescribing
Support the Senior Clinical Pharmacist with the management of repeat prescribing reauthorisation process by reviewing patient requests for repeat prescriptions and reviewing medicines reaching review dates; make necessary changes as an independent prescriber, and ensure patients are booked in for necessary monitoring tests where required
Support the Senior Clinical Pharmacist with the development and management of new services that are built around new medicines or NICE guidance, where new medicine/ recommendations allow the development of a new care pathway (e.g., new oral anticoagulants for stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation)
Medicines Quality Improvement Programmes
Support the Senior Clinical Pharmacist to identify and lead on areas of prescribing and medicines optimisation
Support the delivery of clinical audits and improvement projects or work with colleagues such as GP registrars, Practice Managers, PCN Manager etc.
Support the presentation of results and provide leadership on suggested changes
Contribute to national and local research initiatives
Medicines safety
Support the Senior Clinical Pharmacist with medicines safety requirements including taking high level responsibility for ensuring all national and local guidelines and updates are actioned within the Practice and PCN Services including NICE guidelines, Pan Mersey guidelines and MHRA alerts
Support the Senior Clinical Pharmacist to ensure adequate processes are in place to comply with regulatory requirements as monitored by CQC
Support the Senior Clinical Pharmacist to ensure PCN compliance with yellow card reporting
Identify national and local policy and guidance that affects patient safety through the use of medicines, including MHRA alerts, product withdrawals and emerging evidence from clinical trials
Support the management of implementing changes to medicines and guidance for practitioners
Collaborative working relationships
Recognise the roles of other colleagues within the organisation and their role to patient care
Demonstrate use of appropriate communication to gain the co-operation of relevant stakeholders (including patients, senior and peer colleagues, and other professionals, other NHS/private organisations e.g., ICS/ PLACE)
Demonstrate ability to lead a team
Recognise personal limitations and refer to more appropriate colleague(s) when necessary
Actively work toward developing and maintaining effective working relationships both within and outside the Practice
Foster and maintain strong links with all services across locality
Explore the potential for collaborative working and takes opportunities to initiate and sustain such relationships
Demonstrate ability to integrate General Practice with community and hospital pharmacy teams
Liaise with ICS/ PLACE colleagues including ICS/ PLACE Pharmacists on prescribing related matters to ensure consistency of patient care and benefit
Liaise with ICS/ PLACE Pharmacists and Heads of Medicines Management/ Optimisation to benefit from peer support
Liaise with other stakeholders as needed for the collective benefit of patients including but not limited to patients, GP, Nurses and other Practice staff
Leadership
Demonstrate understanding of the pharmacy role in governance and be able to implement this appropriately within the workplace
Demonstrate understanding of, and contribute to, the workplace vision
Supports engagement with Patient Participation Groups (PPGs)
Demonstrate ability to improve quality within limitations of service
Support the Senior Clinical Pharmacist to review yearly progress and develop clear plans to achieve results within priorities set by others
Demonstrate ability to motivate self to achieve goals
Demonstrate ability to lead a team and provide support to colleagues
Provide a leadership style which is underpinned by strongly held values of the organisation and around equality, diversity and openness; effectively build and maintain relationships with direct reportee(s) and other key individuals across the organisation
Promote diversity and equality in people management techniques and lead by example
For the full Job Description please see attached