Job summary
The post
holder will report to the GP Clinical Lead within the Primary Care Network for
clinical supervision. They will also have strong working relationships with the
Practice Managers and other clinicians in the network.
Alliance for Better Care will provide consistent employment support
throughout the appointment.
As part of clinical duties, the successful candidates will join the
multi-disciplinary staff in providing comprehensive care and will work with
patients, carers, and families.
ABC as employer
will provide support and ensure access to the NHSE England training programme
as well as a local network of Clinical Pharmacists working in general practice.
This post is part of
the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme for Primary Care Networks funded by
NHS England and includes funded access to the Clinical Pharmacist Training
Pathway for any further modules required to complete the pathway.
The post holder is
a Pharmacist, who acts within their professional boundaries, supporting and
working alongside a pharmacist team in general practice. In this role they will
be supported by a GP Clinical Lead who will develop, manage and mentor them.
The post holder
will work as part of a multi-disciplinary team in a patient-facing role. The
post holder will take responsibility for areas of chronic disease management
within the practice and undertake clinical medication reviews to proactively
manage patients with complex polypharmacy.
Main duties of the job
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 provide clinical leadership on medicines optimisation and quality improvement, manage some aspects of the quality and outcomes framework and enhanced services and contribute to the delivery of the local medicines optimisation strategy.
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 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 (if not already a prescriber).
About us
Alliance for Better Care (ABC) is a
GP Federation uniting 77 NHS GP member practices across 98 sites within 24
Primary Care Networks in Sussex and Surrey. We support our Primary Care
colleagues - and their patients - to transform how healthcare is delivered in
their communities.
We work closely with GP Practices,
PCNs, Hospitals, Community Organisations, and the Third Sector. These vital
partnerships enable us to deliver a truly integrated approach that offers the
support and expertise needed to effectively serve our populations.
About Healthy Crawley PCN
Healthy Crawley Primary Care Network
is a NHS Collaboration between four GP Practices Furnace Green Surgery,
Ifield Medical Practice, Poundhill Surgery and The Woodlands/Clerklands
Partnership - working together to provide enhanced access services.
Our surgery teams work closely, sharing expertise and
resources to develop new services. Our vision is to continue to improve the
quality of care that we provide in alignment with the needs of our patient
population.
Our Primary Care Network builds on the existing primary care
services and enables a greater provision of proactive, personalised and more
integrated health and social care. We are supported by practitioners in
additional roles who allow us to create bespoke multi-disciplinary teams based
on the needs of our local population. By
working together with local community services, this allows us to make support
available to people where it is most needed.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Primary duties and
areas of responsibility
From Start of Post:
See (where appropriate) patients with single or multiple medical
problems where medicine optimisation is required (e.g. COPD, asthma)
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 Senior Pharmacists or GPs for medicine
improvement
Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients and produce
recommendations for senior clinical pharmacist, nurses and/or GP on prescribing
and monitoring
Provide patient facing clinics for those with questions, queries
and concerns about their medicines in the practice
Provide telephone support for patients with questions, queries and
concerns about their medicines
Act as a source of medicines information for all of the practice
team and patients, (such as around doses, side effects, adverse events,
possible alternatives (i.e. around out of stocks) suggesting and recommending
solutions
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)
Ensure that patients are referred to the appropriate healthcare
professional for the right care. Ensuring that the addition of the pharmacist
to the clinical team results in a reduction in workload for other clinicians
Produce and implement a practice repeat prescribing policy in line
with the recommendations Medicines Management Team
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
Support the contractual requirements to support frail patients
with their medication including medication review and some patient
identification (i.e. patients with problematic polypharmacy)
Undertake clinical audits of prescribing in areas directed by the
GPs, feedback the results and implement changes in conjunction with the
practice team
Work with MMT to support the implementation of local and national
guidelines including NICE, Prescribing Formularies etc
Liaise with hospital colleagues where prescribing needs to be
returned to specialists
Provide education and training to primary healthcare team on
therapeutics and medicines optimisation
Work with the general practice team to ensure the practice is
compliant with CQC standards where medicines are involved
To support public health campaigns
To provide specialist knowledge on all public health programmes
available to the general public
Implement changes to medicines that result from MHRA alerts,
product withdrawal and other local and national guidance
Role may evolve to include:
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 the prescribing of these medicines
to highrisk patient groups
Managing caseload of patients with common/minor/self-limiting
ailments
Signposting to community pharmacy and referring to GPs or other
healthcare professionals where appropriate
Job description
Job responsibilities
Primary duties and
areas of responsibility
From Start of Post:
See (where appropriate) patients with single or multiple medical
problems where medicine optimisation is required (e.g. COPD, asthma)
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 Senior Pharmacists or GPs for medicine
improvement
Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients and produce
recommendations for senior clinical pharmacist, nurses and/or GP on prescribing
and monitoring
Provide patient facing clinics for those with questions, queries
and concerns about their medicines in the practice
Provide telephone support for patients with questions, queries and
concerns about their medicines
Act as a source of medicines information for all of the practice
team and patients, (such as around doses, side effects, adverse events,
possible alternatives (i.e. around out of stocks) suggesting and recommending
solutions
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)
Ensure that patients are referred to the appropriate healthcare
professional for the right care. Ensuring that the addition of the pharmacist
to the clinical team results in a reduction in workload for other clinicians
Produce and implement a practice repeat prescribing policy in line
with the recommendations Medicines Management Team
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
Support the contractual requirements to support frail patients
with their medication including medication review and some patient
identification (i.e. patients with problematic polypharmacy)
Undertake clinical audits of prescribing in areas directed by the
GPs, feedback the results and implement changes in conjunction with the
practice team
Work with MMT to support the implementation of local and national
guidelines including NICE, Prescribing Formularies etc
Liaise with hospital colleagues where prescribing needs to be
returned to specialists
Provide education and training to primary healthcare team on
therapeutics and medicines optimisation
Work with the general practice team to ensure the practice is
compliant with CQC standards where medicines are involved
To support public health campaigns
To provide specialist knowledge on all public health programmes
available to the general public
Implement changes to medicines that result from MHRA alerts,
product withdrawal and other local and national guidance
Role may evolve to include:
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 the prescribing of these medicines
to highrisk patient groups
Managing caseload of patients with common/minor/self-limiting
ailments
Signposting to community pharmacy and referring to GPs or other
healthcare professionals where appropriate
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Mandatory registration with General Pharmaceutical Council
- Undergraduate degree in pharmacy (MPharm)
Desirable
- Membership of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society
- A member of or working towards Faculty membership of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society
- Clinical diploma
- Postgraduate Certificate in Pharmacy Practice
- Independent prescriber
Research, Leadership and Management
Essential
- Demonstrates ability to critically evaluate and review literature
- Demonstrates ability to identify where there is a gap in the evidence base to support practice
- Demonstrates ability to generate evidence suitable for presentation at local level
- Demonstrates ability to apply the research evidence base into working practice
- Demonstrates understanding of the principles of research governance
- Demonstrates ability to work as a member of the research team
- Demonstrates understanding of the pharmacy role in governance and is able to implement this appropriately within the workplace
- Demonstrates understanding of, and contributes to organisational vision
- Demonstrates ability to improve quality within limitations of service
- Reviews progress and develops clear plans to achieve results within priorities set by others
- Demonstrates ability to motivate self to achieve goals
- Demonstrates understanding of the implications of national priorities for the team and/or service
- Demonstrates understanding of the process for effective resource utilisation
- Demonstrates understanding of, and conforms to, relevant standards of practice
- Demonstrates ability to identify and resolve risk management issues according to policy/protocol
Experience
Essential
- Minimum of 2 years experience post-qualification
- In depth therapeutic and clinical knowledge and understanding of the principles of evidence-based medicine and healthcare
- Good knowledge of service developments in medicines, prescribing, NHS policy and other relevant policy directives
- A good understanding of primary care prescribing, concepts of rational prescribing and strategies for improving prescribing
- Excellent understanding and implementation of legal, ethical, professional and organisational policies/procedures and codes of conduct
- Good understanding of patient centred care and impact on care quality and outcomes
- Good understanding of patients role in decisions about prescribed medicines and supporting adherence as per NICE guidance
- Experience of multi-disciplinary team working
- Experience of committees/ working groups
- Drug information experience
- Experience in writing complex and high quality reports
- Experience in audit, research and analysis of highly complex information related to improving clinical quality
Desirable
- Experience in supervising staff
- Experience of independent patient consultation, review and recommendations/prescribing
Behaviours and Values
Essential
- Self-Motivation
- Adaptable
Skills and Abilities
Essential
- Ability to solve problems effectively and timely and identifies deviations from the normal pattern and when to refer to seniors or GPs when appropriate
- Excellent interpersonal, influencing and negotiating 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)
- Ability to plan, prioritise, manage, monitor, advise and review clinical and general medicine optimisation issues in core areas for long term conditions
- Good IT skills
- Able to obtain and analyse complex technical information
- Able to work under pressure and challenging situations to meet deadlines
- Produce timely and informative reports
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Mandatory registration with General Pharmaceutical Council
- Undergraduate degree in pharmacy (MPharm)
Desirable
- Membership of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society
- A member of or working towards Faculty membership of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society
- Clinical diploma
- Postgraduate Certificate in Pharmacy Practice
- Independent prescriber
Research, Leadership and Management
Essential
- Demonstrates ability to critically evaluate and review literature
- Demonstrates ability to identify where there is a gap in the evidence base to support practice
- Demonstrates ability to generate evidence suitable for presentation at local level
- Demonstrates ability to apply the research evidence base into working practice
- Demonstrates understanding of the principles of research governance
- Demonstrates ability to work as a member of the research team
- Demonstrates understanding of the pharmacy role in governance and is able to implement this appropriately within the workplace
- Demonstrates understanding of, and contributes to organisational vision
- Demonstrates ability to improve quality within limitations of service
- Reviews progress and develops clear plans to achieve results within priorities set by others
- Demonstrates ability to motivate self to achieve goals
- Demonstrates understanding of the implications of national priorities for the team and/or service
- Demonstrates understanding of the process for effective resource utilisation
- Demonstrates understanding of, and conforms to, relevant standards of practice
- Demonstrates ability to identify and resolve risk management issues according to policy/protocol
Experience
Essential
- Minimum of 2 years experience post-qualification
- In depth therapeutic and clinical knowledge and understanding of the principles of evidence-based medicine and healthcare
- Good knowledge of service developments in medicines, prescribing, NHS policy and other relevant policy directives
- A good understanding of primary care prescribing, concepts of rational prescribing and strategies for improving prescribing
- Excellent understanding and implementation of legal, ethical, professional and organisational policies/procedures and codes of conduct
- Good understanding of patient centred care and impact on care quality and outcomes
- Good understanding of patients role in decisions about prescribed medicines and supporting adherence as per NICE guidance
- Experience of multi-disciplinary team working
- Experience of committees/ working groups
- Drug information experience
- Experience in writing complex and high quality reports
- Experience in audit, research and analysis of highly complex information related to improving clinical quality
Desirable
- Experience in supervising staff
- Experience of independent patient consultation, review and recommendations/prescribing
Behaviours and Values
Essential
- Self-Motivation
- Adaptable
Skills and Abilities
Essential
- Ability to solve problems effectively and timely and identifies deviations from the normal pattern and when to refer to seniors or GPs when appropriate
- Excellent interpersonal, influencing and negotiating 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)
- Ability to plan, prioritise, manage, monitor, advise and review clinical and general medicine optimisation issues in core areas for long term conditions
- Good IT skills
- Able to obtain and analyse complex technical information
- Able to work under pressure and challenging situations to meet deadlines
- Produce timely and informative reports
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).
Additional information
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).
