Job summary
This is an exciting opportunity to join
Cobham & Oxshott primary care network in Surrey
working across both practice sites to develop and utilise the role of pharmacy
within primary care to pro-actively help patients stay safe, well and out of
hospital as well as supporting efforts to reduce the demands on general
practice.
Main duties of the job
The post holder will help patients to get the best from their medicines by switching medications to agreed and approved protocols, improving repeat prescribing processes in General Practice, including online ordering using the NHS app, minimising clinical risk and aiming to reduce wasted medicines.
- To work as part of a multi-disciplinary team in a patient-facing role to clinically assess and treat patients using extensive experience and in depth knowledge to be directly responsible for care and prescribing of defined cohort(s) of patients
- To deliver and develop pharmacy led medicines optimisation working with general practice and the wider multidisciplinary team, ensuring practice(s) remain up to date
- To lead and promote, support and facilitate medicines optimisation for specialist area in the wider medicines agenda ensuring best value, reduced harm and improved outcomes.
- To lead and deliver evaluation and quality improvement in order to ensure a high quality service and to further develop provision.
- To work to the principles of Medicines Optimisation and relevant up to date national guidelines and evidence base.
- To support the Prescribing Lead with the medicines agenda within the practice(s).
Ideal schedule Weds-Friday (hybrid of in person at Cobham Health Centre and working from home.)
About us
Cobham & Oxshott Primary Care Network is a collaboration of two GP practices located in the Cobham and Oxshott area of Surrey, caring for a population of approximately 20,000 patients.
We are a friendly and inclusive team with prior experience of PCN working and have strong, established relationships with each other, our ICB and other local, external organisations with excellent support from our GP federation, GP Health Partners Ltd.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Main Responsibilities
- Work as part of a multi-disciplinary team in a patient facing role to clinically assess and treat patients using expert knowledge of medicines for specific disease areas.
- Provide pharmaceutical consultations to patients with long term conditions as an integral part of the multidisciplinary team.
- Provide proactive leadership on medicines and prescribing systems to the practice team, patients and their carers.
- Improve patient and carer understanding of, confidence in and compliance with their medication.
- Provide advice and answer medication related queries from patients and staff
- Organise and oversee the practices medicines optimisation systems including the repeat prescribing and medication review systems.
- Work with the GP Practices within the Primary Care Network to support them with implementation of the PCN DES and day-to-day general practice.
- Promote high quality, cost-effective prescribing in primary care, supporting the specifications within the PCN DES, including Structured Medication Reviews, Enhanced Health in Care Homes and other medicines optimisation tasks as determined by the Practice / PCN.
- Improve the quality and effectiveness of prescribing through clinical audit and education to improve performance against NICE standards, and clinical and prescribing guidance.
- Develop yourself and the role through participation in clinical supervision, training and service redesign activities.
- Contribute to a patient safety culture through reporting and investigation of medicines incidents and undertaking proactive measures to improve patient safety.
- Work with community pharmacists, hospital pharmacists, and other stakeholders in the medicines supply chain to improve patient experience and manage incidents.
- Deliver training, mentoring and guidance to other clinicians and staff on medicine issues.
- Respond to prescription requests from community patients, nursing/care home staff, pharmacy staff and GPs, processing them within recognised timescales (e.g. 48 hours for routine prescriptions and same day for urgent prescriptions). This can include re-routing prescriptions to out of hours pharmacies for same day delivery.
- Process monthly prescriptions for nursing/care homes, checking for changes and adherence/over-ordering issues.
- Use practice/PCN templates to record near patient monitoring for high risk drugs.
- Identify blood tests, recalls and reviews using established protocols and forward these to the appropriate clinician.
- Support and respond to medicines-related queries from medical and nursing colleagues and from patients and relatives via face to face, via phone or via email. Queries can include issues with interactions or ADRs, availability of stock, swallowing difficulties, cost-effectiveness, urgent requests or extra supplies.
- Review hospital discharge notifications and outpatient hospital letters and reconcile medication against current repeats, flagging up and correcting discrepancies.
- Promote safe use of medication, reporting of medicines-related incidents and pro-actively preventing safeguarding incidents.
- Use knowledge of GP computer prescribing systems and community pharmacy dispensing systems to advise on solving problems related to prescribing/dispensing and other areas to develop the skills of practice and pharmacy staff.
- Support the review of care home procedures, making recommendations for potential improvements.
- Observe the principles of clinical governance when developing policies, protocols, guidelines, SOPs and procedures.
- Support practice prescribing budgets by on-going monitoring, audit and analysis of drug use and support practices in reviewing, developing and enhancing cost-effective prescribing. This includes staying aware of latest QIPP and other cost targets.
- Help review medication with the pharmacists and make recommendations for prescribing changes to improve outcome and ensure prescribing of the most cost-effective product.
Other Responsibilities
ADMINISTRATION
- Contributes and participates in audits, evaluation and clinical standard setting within the Practice and/or PCN.
- Accurate and timely summarising of patient records and read-coding patient data
- Complete all required paperwork for legal and administrative purposes in accordance with relevant standards
- Ensure that all practice policies are fully implemented
- Work in accordance with all governance and internal systems relating to (but not limited to) the management of clinical data and systems
TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
- Taking responsibility for own development with relevant evidence-based knowledge and competence in all aspects of the role to meet clinical governance guidelines for Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and a Personal Development Plan (PDP).
- Stay up to date through attendance at any courses and/or study days necessary to ensure that professional development requirements are met, demonstrating skills and activities to others who are undertaking similar work.
- Subject to a performance review, including taking responsibility for maintaining a record of own personal and/or professional development.
- Work closely with other clinical staff and administrative managers in the setting up and/or improving of practice systems for monitoring/measuring performance against Clinical Governance and Quality Indicator targets
- Work to deliver the NHS contract requirements related to the practice (including the terms of the Quality and Outcomes Framework and locally enhanced services)
GOVERNANCE
- Produce complete and accurate records of patient consultation, in line with best practice, confidentiality, policies and procedures
- Deliver care according to NHS guidance, NICE guidelines and evidence-based care
- Take part in the maintenance of quality governance systems and processes across the Practice and its activities.
- Utilise the audit cycle as a means of evaluating the quality of the work of self and the team, implementing improvements where required.
- Work with other clinical teams on improving the quality of healthcare in response to local and national policies and initiatives as appropriate
- Evaluate patients response to health care provision and the effectiveness of care
- Support and participate in shared learning across the practice and wider organisation
- Manage, review and identify learning from patient complaints, clinical incidents and near-miss events
- Awareness of statutory safeguarding, notification processes and local guidance for children/vulnerable patients, applying relevant policies and legislation to protect them
- Ensure compliance with policies, procedures and guidelines for self and others, by taking action or alerting senior management team if the practice appears to contravene policy, or if there are concerns over any aspect of patient care.
CONFIDENTIALITY
- Maintain confidentiality of information, acting within the terms of the Data Protection Act and Caldicott guidance on patient confidentiality at all times.
- Maintain an awareness of the Freedom of Information Act.
- Information relating to patients, carers, colleagues, other healthcare workers or the business of the practice may only be divulged to authorised persons in accordance with the Practice policies and procedures relating to confidentiality and the protection of personal and sensitive data
HEALTH & SAFETY
- The post-holder will manage their own and others health & safety and infection control as defined in the Practices Health & Safety Policy, the Practice Health & Safety Manual, and the Practices Infection Control Policy and published procedures.
- Comply with Practice health and safety policies by following agreed safe working procedures
- Actively reporting of health and safety hazards and infection hazards immediately when recognised
- Keeping work and general areas clean and tidy, and using appropriate infection control procedures to keep work areas hygienic and safe from contamination.
- Undertaking periodic infection control training (minimum annually)
- Awareness and compliance with national standards of infection control, hygiene, regulatory / contractual / professional requirements, and good practice guidelines.
- Correct personal use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and ensuring correct use of PPE by others, advising on appropriate circumstances for use by clinicians, staff and patients.
- Reporting incidents using the organisations Incident Reporting System
- Using personal security systems within the workplace according to Practice guidelines
- Making effective use of training to update knowledge and skills
EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY
- The post-holder will support, promote and maintain the Practices Equality & Diversity Policy.
- No person whether they are staff, patient or visitor should receive less favourable treatment because of their gender, ethnic origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, religion etc.
- The jobholder must comply with all policies and procedures designed to ensure equality of employment and that services are delivered in ways that meet the individual needs of patients and their families.
OTHER DELEGATED DUTIES
This job description is not intended to be exhaustive - it may be changed according to the needs of the PCN.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Main Responsibilities
- Work as part of a multi-disciplinary team in a patient facing role to clinically assess and treat patients using expert knowledge of medicines for specific disease areas.
- Provide pharmaceutical consultations to patients with long term conditions as an integral part of the multidisciplinary team.
- Provide proactive leadership on medicines and prescribing systems to the practice team, patients and their carers.
- Improve patient and carer understanding of, confidence in and compliance with their medication.
- Provide advice and answer medication related queries from patients and staff
- Organise and oversee the practices medicines optimisation systems including the repeat prescribing and medication review systems.
- Work with the GP Practices within the Primary Care Network to support them with implementation of the PCN DES and day-to-day general practice.
- Promote high quality, cost-effective prescribing in primary care, supporting the specifications within the PCN DES, including Structured Medication Reviews, Enhanced Health in Care Homes and other medicines optimisation tasks as determined by the Practice / PCN.
- Improve the quality and effectiveness of prescribing through clinical audit and education to improve performance against NICE standards, and clinical and prescribing guidance.
- Develop yourself and the role through participation in clinical supervision, training and service redesign activities.
- Contribute to a patient safety culture through reporting and investigation of medicines incidents and undertaking proactive measures to improve patient safety.
- Work with community pharmacists, hospital pharmacists, and other stakeholders in the medicines supply chain to improve patient experience and manage incidents.
- Deliver training, mentoring and guidance to other clinicians and staff on medicine issues.
- Respond to prescription requests from community patients, nursing/care home staff, pharmacy staff and GPs, processing them within recognised timescales (e.g. 48 hours for routine prescriptions and same day for urgent prescriptions). This can include re-routing prescriptions to out of hours pharmacies for same day delivery.
- Process monthly prescriptions for nursing/care homes, checking for changes and adherence/over-ordering issues.
- Use practice/PCN templates to record near patient monitoring for high risk drugs.
- Identify blood tests, recalls and reviews using established protocols and forward these to the appropriate clinician.
- Support and respond to medicines-related queries from medical and nursing colleagues and from patients and relatives via face to face, via phone or via email. Queries can include issues with interactions or ADRs, availability of stock, swallowing difficulties, cost-effectiveness, urgent requests or extra supplies.
- Review hospital discharge notifications and outpatient hospital letters and reconcile medication against current repeats, flagging up and correcting discrepancies.
- Promote safe use of medication, reporting of medicines-related incidents and pro-actively preventing safeguarding incidents.
- Use knowledge of GP computer prescribing systems and community pharmacy dispensing systems to advise on solving problems related to prescribing/dispensing and other areas to develop the skills of practice and pharmacy staff.
- Support the review of care home procedures, making recommendations for potential improvements.
- Observe the principles of clinical governance when developing policies, protocols, guidelines, SOPs and procedures.
- Support practice prescribing budgets by on-going monitoring, audit and analysis of drug use and support practices in reviewing, developing and enhancing cost-effective prescribing. This includes staying aware of latest QIPP and other cost targets.
- Help review medication with the pharmacists and make recommendations for prescribing changes to improve outcome and ensure prescribing of the most cost-effective product.
Other Responsibilities
ADMINISTRATION
- Contributes and participates in audits, evaluation and clinical standard setting within the Practice and/or PCN.
- Accurate and timely summarising of patient records and read-coding patient data
- Complete all required paperwork for legal and administrative purposes in accordance with relevant standards
- Ensure that all practice policies are fully implemented
- Work in accordance with all governance and internal systems relating to (but not limited to) the management of clinical data and systems
TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
- Taking responsibility for own development with relevant evidence-based knowledge and competence in all aspects of the role to meet clinical governance guidelines for Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and a Personal Development Plan (PDP).
- Stay up to date through attendance at any courses and/or study days necessary to ensure that professional development requirements are met, demonstrating skills and activities to others who are undertaking similar work.
- Subject to a performance review, including taking responsibility for maintaining a record of own personal and/or professional development.
- Work closely with other clinical staff and administrative managers in the setting up and/or improving of practice systems for monitoring/measuring performance against Clinical Governance and Quality Indicator targets
- Work to deliver the NHS contract requirements related to the practice (including the terms of the Quality and Outcomes Framework and locally enhanced services)
GOVERNANCE
- Produce complete and accurate records of patient consultation, in line with best practice, confidentiality, policies and procedures
- Deliver care according to NHS guidance, NICE guidelines and evidence-based care
- Take part in the maintenance of quality governance systems and processes across the Practice and its activities.
- Utilise the audit cycle as a means of evaluating the quality of the work of self and the team, implementing improvements where required.
- Work with other clinical teams on improving the quality of healthcare in response to local and national policies and initiatives as appropriate
- Evaluate patients response to health care provision and the effectiveness of care
- Support and participate in shared learning across the practice and wider organisation
- Manage, review and identify learning from patient complaints, clinical incidents and near-miss events
- Awareness of statutory safeguarding, notification processes and local guidance for children/vulnerable patients, applying relevant policies and legislation to protect them
- Ensure compliance with policies, procedures and guidelines for self and others, by taking action or alerting senior management team if the practice appears to contravene policy, or if there are concerns over any aspect of patient care.
CONFIDENTIALITY
- Maintain confidentiality of information, acting within the terms of the Data Protection Act and Caldicott guidance on patient confidentiality at all times.
- Maintain an awareness of the Freedom of Information Act.
- Information relating to patients, carers, colleagues, other healthcare workers or the business of the practice may only be divulged to authorised persons in accordance with the Practice policies and procedures relating to confidentiality and the protection of personal and sensitive data
HEALTH & SAFETY
- The post-holder will manage their own and others health & safety and infection control as defined in the Practices Health & Safety Policy, the Practice Health & Safety Manual, and the Practices Infection Control Policy and published procedures.
- Comply with Practice health and safety policies by following agreed safe working procedures
- Actively reporting of health and safety hazards and infection hazards immediately when recognised
- Keeping work and general areas clean and tidy, and using appropriate infection control procedures to keep work areas hygienic and safe from contamination.
- Undertaking periodic infection control training (minimum annually)
- Awareness and compliance with national standards of infection control, hygiene, regulatory / contractual / professional requirements, and good practice guidelines.
- Correct personal use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and ensuring correct use of PPE by others, advising on appropriate circumstances for use by clinicians, staff and patients.
- Reporting incidents using the organisations Incident Reporting System
- Using personal security systems within the workplace according to Practice guidelines
- Making effective use of training to update knowledge and skills
EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY
- The post-holder will support, promote and maintain the Practices Equality & Diversity Policy.
- No person whether they are staff, patient or visitor should receive less favourable treatment because of their gender, ethnic origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, religion etc.
- The jobholder must comply with all policies and procedures designed to ensure equality of employment and that services are delivered in ways that meet the individual needs of patients and their families.
OTHER DELEGATED DUTIES
This job description is not intended to be exhaustive - it may be changed according to the needs of the PCN.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Masters degree in pharmacy (MPharm) (or equivalent)
- Registered Pharmacist with General Pharmaceutical Council
- Specialist knowledge acquired through postgraduate diploma level or equivalent training/experience
Desirable
- Independent prescriber or working towards/intent of gaining independent prescribing qualification.
- Minimum of 2 years post qualification experience, including primary care and at least one other field of pharmacy (community or hospital)
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Masters degree in pharmacy (MPharm) (or equivalent)
- Registered Pharmacist with General Pharmaceutical Council
- Specialist knowledge acquired through postgraduate diploma level or equivalent training/experience
Desirable
- Independent prescriber or working towards/intent of gaining independent prescribing qualification.
- Minimum of 2 years post qualification experience, including primary care and at least one other field of pharmacy (community or hospital)
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).
