Job responsibilities
MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
The focus of the post holders work will depend on the qualifications, skills and experience of the individual and the needs of the PCN Practice(s) both of which may develop over time. Therefore the breadth of duties are outlined below:
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, managing own case load.
Patient facing clinical medication reviewand support
Undertake structured, clinical shared decision making medication reviews with patients and utilising your independent prescribing and order relevant monitoring with appropriate review.
Telephone medicines support
Provide a telephone support for patients with queries and concerns about their medicines.
Patient facing care home/residential clinical medication reviews
Manage own caseload of care home residents providing a structured medication review.
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 their medicines.
Attend and refer patients to multidisciplinary case conferences. Identifying key areas of need for vulnerable patients and formulating care plans.
Management of common/minor/self-limiting ailments
Manage own caseload for patients with common/minor/self-limiting ailments while working within a scope of practice and limits of competence, signposting as appropriate.
Triage/differentiated/undifferentiated diagnosis
Ensure that patients are referred to the appropriate clinician for the appropriate level of care within an appropriate period of time.
Medicine information to practice staff and patients
Answer all medicinerelated enquiries from GPs, other practice staff, other healthcare teams (e.g. community pharmacy) and patients with queries about medicines.
Unplanned hospital admissions
Implement practice searches to identify cohorts of patients most likely to be at risk of an unplanned admission/re-admission from medicines
Work with colleagues to manage medicinesrelated risk for readmission and patient harm. Put in place changes to optimise prescribing of these medicines to highrisk patient groups.
Management of medicines at discharge from hospital
Reconcile medicines following hospital discharge and upon admission to care homes, including identifying and rectifying unexplained changes manage these changes independently.
Work with hospital and community colleagues to proactively manage patients at high risk of medicine related problems before they are discharged to ensure continuity of care.
Repeat prescribing
Produce if necessary and implement a practice repeat prescribing policy, ensuring promoting cost effective use of medicines and minimising unnecessary waste. Manage the repeat prescribing reauthorisation process.
Medicines Optimisation and Quality Improvement programmes
Support the delivery of local and national quality or cost effectiveness initiatives, identifying areas of prescribing for review.
Incorporate the objectives of medicines optimisation into every day general practice.
Conduct clinical audits and quality improvement projects, presenting results and providing leadership on suggested changes.
Service development
Support new services that are built around new medicines, or medicines within NICE guidance or a local care pathway. Contribute to the achievement of KPIs and PCN objectives.
Information management
Analyse, interpret and present medicines data to highlight issues and risks to support decision-making.
Medicines safety and Risk Stratification
Identify cohorts of patients at high risk of harm from medicines following national and local drug safety alerts e.g. MHRA.
Responsibility for management of risk stratification tools on behalf of the practice. Working with patients and the primary care team to minimise risks through medicines optimisation.
Manage the process of implementing changes to medicines and guidance for practitioners.
Provide leadership for antibiotic stewardship.
Care Quality Commission
Support the general practice team to ensure the practice is compliant with CQC standards where medicines are involved.
Undertake risk assessment and ensure the management of medicines in the Practice complies with medicines legislation.
Shared Care and Implementation of local and national guidelines and formulary recommendations
Monitor practice prescribing against the local health economys RAG list for medicines that should be prescribed by hospital doctors (red drugs) or subject to shared care (amber drugs).
Liaise directly with hospital colleagues where prescribing needs to be returned to specialists.
Public health
Support public health campaigns.
Communication and collaborative working
The post-holder should recognise the importance of effective communication.
It is vital the post holder works collaboratively with their PCN clinical director;
Recognises the roles of other colleagues within the network and their role to patient care
Demonstrates 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)
Is able to recognise personal limitations and refer to more appropriate colleague(s) when necessary.
Training & Development
Fully participates in training and development
Engages in a programme of ongoing support and feedback to maximise the benefit of the training and development plan.
Confidentiality
In the course of seeking treatment, patients entrust us with, or allow us to gather, sensitive information in relation to their health. They do so in confidence and have the right to expect that staff will respect their privacy and act appropriately.
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 or Alliance policies and procedures relating to confidentiality, and the protection of personal and sensitive data.
Health & Safety
The post-holder will assist in promoting and maintaining their own and others health, safety and security as defined in the Practice Health & Safety Policy to include:
Identifying the risk involved in work activities and undertaking such activities in a way that manages those risks.
Ensuring that all accidents or dangerous accidents are reported and investigated, and follow up action taken where necessary.
Equality and Diversity
The post-holder will support the quality, diversity and rights of patients, carers and colleagues to include:
Acting in a way that recognizes the importance of peoples rights, interpreting them in a way that is consistent with current legislation.
Respecting the privacy, dignity, needs and beliefs of patients, carers and colleagues.
Behaving in a manner which is welcoming to and of the individual, is non-judgemental and respects their circumstances, feelings, priorities and rights.
Quality
The post-holder will strive to maintain quality within the Practice, and will:
Alert the other team members to issues of quality and risk.
Assess own performance and take accountability for own actions, either directly or under supervision.
Contribute to the effectiveness of the team by reflecting on own and team activities and making suggestions on ways to improve and enhanced the teams performance.
Work effectively with individuals in other agencies to meet patients needs.
Effectively manage own time, workload and resources.
Communication
The post-holder should recognise the importance of effective communication within the team and will strive to:
Communicate effectively with other team members.
Communicate effectively with patients and carers.
Recognise peoples needs for alternative methods of communication and respond accordingly.
The employer is Sunderland GP Alliance and the post-holder is expected to comply with the Alliances employment policies and procedures.
