Job responsibilities
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Patient facing long-term condition clinics
- 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.
Patient facing clinical medication review
- Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for Senior Clinical Pharmacist, Nurses and/or GP on prescribing and monitoring.
Patient facing care home medication review
- Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for the Senior Clinical Pharmacist, nurses or GPs on prescribing and monitoring. Work with care home staff to improve safety of medicines ordering and administration.
Patient facing domiciliary clinical medication review
- Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for the Senior Clinical Pharmacists, Nurses and GPs on prescribing and monitoring. Attend and refer patients to multidisciplinary case conferences.
Management of common/minor/self-limiting aliments
- Managing caseload for patients with common/minor/self-limiting ailments while working within a scope of practice and limits of competence. Signposting to community pharmacy and referring to GPs or other healthcare professionals where appropriate.
Medicines support
- Provide patient facing clinics for those with questions, queries, and concerns about their medicines in the practice.
- Provide a telephone help line for patients with questions, queries, and concerns about their medicines.
Medicine information
- Answers all medicine-related enquiries from GPs, other practice staff, other healthcare teams (e.g., community pharmacy) and patients with queries about medicines. Suggesting and recommending solutions. Providing follow up for patients to monitor the effect of any changes.
Unplanned hospital admissions
- 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 high-risk patient groups.
Management of medicines at discharge from hospital
- 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 high-risk groups of patients (e.g., those with medicine compliance aids or those in care homes).
Signposting
- Ensure that patients are referred to the appropriate Healthcare Professional for the appropriate level of care within an appropriate period of time e.g., pathology results, common/minor ailments, acute conditions, long term condition reviews etc.
Repeat prescribing
- Produce and implement a practice repeat prescribing policy. 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.
Risk stratification
- Identification of cohorts of patients at high risk of harm from medicines through pre-prepared practice computer searches. This might include risks that are patient related, medicine related, or both.
Medicine's quality improvement and safety
- Undertake simple audits of prescribing in areas directed by the GPs, feedback the results and implement changes in conjunction with the practice team.
- Implement changes to medicines that result from MHRA alerts, product withdrawal and other local and national guidance.
Implementation of local and national guidelines and formulary recommendations
- Monitor practice prescribing against the local health economy's RAG list and make recommendations to GPs for medicines that should be prescribed by hospital doctors (red drugs) or subject to shared care (amber drugs). Assist practices in seeing and maintaining a practice formulary that is hosted on the practice's computer system. Auditing practice's compliance against NICE technology assessment guidance. Provide newsletters or bulletins on important prescribing messages.
Collaborative working relationships
The post holder will:
- 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. CCGs)
- Demonstrate ability to work as a member of 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 and locality
- 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 CCG colleagues including CCG Pharmacists on prescribing related matters to ensure consistency of patient care and benefit
- Liaise with CCG pharmacists and Heads of Medicines Management/ Optimisation to benefit from peer support
- Liaise with other GP Practices and staff as needed for the collective benefit of patients including but not limited to:
- Patients
- GP, Nurses, and other practice staff
- Other healthcare professionals
- Locality / GP prescribing lead
- Locality managers
- Community nurses and other allied health professionals
- Community and hospital pharmacy teams
- Hospital staff with responsibilities for prescribing and medicines optimisation
Knowledge, skills, and experience
- Completion of an undergraduate degree in pharmacy and registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council
- Minimum of 2 years' experience as a pharmacist, demonstrated within a practice portfolio
- Has experience and an awareness of common acute and long-term conditions that are likely to be seen in general practice
- May hold or be working towards an independent prescribing qualification.
- Recognises priorities when problem-solving and identifies deviations from normal pattern and is able to refer to seniors or GPs when appropriate
- Able to follow legal, ethical, professional, and organisational policies/procedures and codes of conduct
- Involves patients in decisions about prescribed medicines and supporting adherence as per NICE guidelines.
NB: it is anticipated of qualification held may vary according to the level of position and the components of the role being carried out, see person specification that the level.
Leadership
- Demonstrate understanding of the pharmacy role in governance and is able to implement this appropriately within the workplace.
- Demonstrate understanding of, and contributes to, the workplace vision
- Engage with Patient Participation Groups (PPGs) and involves PPGs in development of the role and practices
- Demonstrate ability to improve quality within limitations of service
- Review yearly progress and develops clear plans to achieve results within priorities set by others.
- Demonstrate ability to motivate self to achieve goals
- Promote diversity and equality in people management techniques and leads by example.
Management
- Demonstrate understanding of the implications of national priorities for the team and/or service
- Demonstrate understanding of the process for effective resource utilisation
- Demonstrate understanding of, and conforms to, relevant standards of practice
- Demonstrate ability to identify and resolve risk management issues according to policy/protocol
- Demonstrate ability to extend boundaries of service delivery within the team
Education, training, and development
- Understand and demonstrate the characteristics of a role model to members in the team and/or service
- Demonstrate understanding of the mentorship process
- Demonstrate ability to conduct teaching and assessment effectively according to a learning plan with supervision from more experience colleague
- Demonstrate self-development through continuous professional development activity; working alongside Senior Clinical Pharmacist to identifying areas to develop
- Participate in the delivery of formal education programmes
- Demonstrate an understanding of current educational policies relevant to working areas of practice and keeps up to date with relevant clinical practice.
- Ensure appropriate clinical supervision is in place to support development
- Enrol into review and appraisal systems within the practice
Research and evaluation
The post holder will:
- Demonstrate ability to critically evaluate and review literature
- Demonstrate ability to identify where there is a gap in the evidence base to support practice
- Demonstrate ability to generate evidence suitable for presentations at practice and local level
- Demonstrate ability to apply research evidence base into working place
- Demonstrate understanding of principles of research governance.
Health and safety/risk management
- Must comply at all times with the Practice's Health and Safety policies, in particular by following agreed safe working procedures and reporting incidents using the organisations Incident Reporting System.
- Will comply with the Data Protection Act (1984) and the Access to Health Records Act (1990).
Special working conditions
- Travel independently between practice sites (where applicable), and to attend meetings etc hosted by other agencies.
- Have contact with body fluids i.e., wound exudates; urine etc while in clinical practice.
Please see JD and PS attached for full list.
