Job summary
The post holder is a pharmacist, who acts within their professional boundaries, supporting and working alongside a team of pharmacists and support staff in general practice.
In this role they will provide support as a senior clinical pharmacist who will develop, manage and mentor the PCN pharmacy team. They will work with the Head of Clinical Services to provide support, direction and supervision.
The pharmacist works as part of a multi-disciplinary team in a multi-faceted role with elements of patient-facing and organisational based work. The pharmacist aids PCN member practices in areas of chronic disease management within the practice and undertakes clinical medication reviews to proactively manage patients with complex polypharmacy. The pharmacist provides primary support to general practices within the PCN with regards to prescription and medication queries. They may involve supporting the repeat prescription system, dealing 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 patients in the GP practices.
Main duties of the job
The pharmacist will ensure that the PCN integrates with community & hospital pharmacy to help utilise skill mix, improve patient outcomes, ensure better access to healthcare & help manage workload. Support DDHF management team members & lead personnel in the day to day management of their functions & teams Day to day direct line management & supervision of Clinical Pharmacists & technicians Identify areas for continual improvement within own areas of responsibility & proactively assist with implementing & managing change, as & when required. Undertake specific assigned tasks, project support, or development work as directed by the Head of clinical services. Support & adhere to DDHF HR management systems & processes for & by pharmacy team Support & adhere to DDHF performance & quality management systems & processes by pharmacy team Ensuring appropriate clinical governance systems & processes are developed, implemented & maintained for all DDHF employed pharmacy staffAssisting in the management & mitigation of organisational riskThe role is pivotal to improving the quality of care & operational efficiencies so requires motivation & passion to deliver excellent service within general practice. In addition the pharmacist will be supported to develop their role in becoming a non-medical prescriber.
About us
12 GP practices across Durham Dales got together, looking for a solution to help them provide the care patients needed, share resources and ideas, & be prepared for the challenges the NHS would face in the future.
The answer they came up with was a formal collaboration between the dozen practices: the Durham Dales Health Federation
DDHFs founding principal is to work together to provide high-quality, cost effective primary healthcare services. DDHF provide a range of services that all GP practices in the area can use to help look after patients.
Our range of staff, include Advanced Nurse Practitioners, Pharmacists, Health care coordinators & social prescribing link workers as well as non-clinical, administration support staff.
DDHF are able to offer a range of benefits to their employees; these are as follows;
Mileage claim (45p per mile)
Flexible Working
NHS pension is carried over
We fully support training & development
Clinical supervision
Team meetings
Regular 1-2-1 support & appraisals
Dress Down Friday
Complimentary refreshments
Free Car Park
Health service discounts
Immunisations offered
Eye tests reimbursed
Job description
Job responsibilities
The pharmacist will provide direct line management for up to 5 clinical Pharmacists within their PCN, in addition to the number of pharmacy technicians within the PCN.
The additional responsibilities of a PCN Senior Clinical Pharmacist to the PCN Clinical Pharmacist role would include:
Providing a minimum of one formal clinical supervision session per PCN pharmacist per month
Monthly one-to-one meeting with each PCN pharmacist (Max of 5) and Pharmacy Technicians
Responsibility for each PCN pharmacists training and development
Planning and implementation of new staff inductions
Provide the first line of support for queries/issues
Responsible for rota management and absence requests
Attending PCN meetings where necessary on behalf of the pharmacy team
Patient facing long-term condition clinics
Patient facing clinical medication reviews
Patient facing care home medication reviews
Risk stratification of high risk drugs/patients
Management of common/minor/self-limiting ailments
Telephone medicines support
Management of medicines at discharge from hospital
Medicine information to practice staff and patients
Repeat prescribing and repeat dispensing
Implementation of local and national guidelines and formulary recommendations
Provide highly specialist advice and recommendations to other healthcare professionals in writing by person or telephone
Undertake prescription screening, medication review, patient drug history taking, counselling and specialist drug ordering
Prescribing where appropriate in areas of suitable clinical competence
Specific responsibilities
The Senior Pharmacist is responsible and accountable for:
Reviewing the ongoing need for each medicine, a review of monitoring needs and an opportunity to support patients with their medicines, ensuring they get the best use of their medicines (i.e. medicines optimisation). Make appropriate recommendations to other clinical pharmacists GPs for medicine improvement.
Undertaking clinical medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for senior clinical pharmacist, nurses and/or GP on prescribing and monitoring.
Undertaking 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.
Undertaking 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
Managing caseload of 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
Providing patient facing clinics for those with questions, queries and concerns about their medicines in the practice
Providing a telephone help line for patients with questions, queries and concerns about their medicines.
Answering relevant 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
Reviewing 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.
Reconciling 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).
Ensuring 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
Reviewing, amending and implementing 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.
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.
Contributing pharmaceutical advice for the development and implementation of new services that have medicinal components (e.g. advice on treatment pathways and patient information leaflets).
Using interpreting and presenting medicines data to highlight issues and risks to support decision-making.
Undertaking clinical audits of prescribing in areas directed by the GPs or on behalf of the Federation, feedback the results and implement changes in conjunction with the practice team.
Implementing changes to medicines that result from MHRA alerts, product withdrawal and other local and national guidance.
Assisting ICB colleagues to monitor practice prescribing against the local health economys 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 and ICB colleagues in seeing and maintaining a practice formulary that is hosted on the practices computer system. Auditing practices compliance against NICE technology assessment guidance. Cascade and provide newsletters or bulletins on important prescribing messages
Providing education and training to primary healthcare team on therapeutics and medicines optimisation.
Working with the general practice team to ensure the practice is compliant with CQC standards where medicines are involved.
Supporting public health campaigns. To provide specialist knowledge on all public health programmes available to the general public
Job description
Job responsibilities
The pharmacist will provide direct line management for up to 5 clinical Pharmacists within their PCN, in addition to the number of pharmacy technicians within the PCN.
The additional responsibilities of a PCN Senior Clinical Pharmacist to the PCN Clinical Pharmacist role would include:
Providing a minimum of one formal clinical supervision session per PCN pharmacist per month
Monthly one-to-one meeting with each PCN pharmacist (Max of 5) and Pharmacy Technicians
Responsibility for each PCN pharmacists training and development
Planning and implementation of new staff inductions
Provide the first line of support for queries/issues
Responsible for rota management and absence requests
Attending PCN meetings where necessary on behalf of the pharmacy team
Patient facing long-term condition clinics
Patient facing clinical medication reviews
Patient facing care home medication reviews
Risk stratification of high risk drugs/patients
Management of common/minor/self-limiting ailments
Telephone medicines support
Management of medicines at discharge from hospital
Medicine information to practice staff and patients
Repeat prescribing and repeat dispensing
Implementation of local and national guidelines and formulary recommendations
Provide highly specialist advice and recommendations to other healthcare professionals in writing by person or telephone
Undertake prescription screening, medication review, patient drug history taking, counselling and specialist drug ordering
Prescribing where appropriate in areas of suitable clinical competence
Specific responsibilities
The Senior Pharmacist is responsible and accountable for:
Reviewing the ongoing need for each medicine, a review of monitoring needs and an opportunity to support patients with their medicines, ensuring they get the best use of their medicines (i.e. medicines optimisation). Make appropriate recommendations to other clinical pharmacists GPs for medicine improvement.
Undertaking clinical medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for senior clinical pharmacist, nurses and/or GP on prescribing and monitoring.
Undertaking 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.
Undertaking 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
Managing caseload of 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
Providing patient facing clinics for those with questions, queries and concerns about their medicines in the practice
Providing a telephone help line for patients with questions, queries and concerns about their medicines.
Answering relevant 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
Reviewing 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.
Reconciling 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).
Ensuring 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
Reviewing, amending and implementing 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.
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.
Contributing pharmaceutical advice for the development and implementation of new services that have medicinal components (e.g. advice on treatment pathways and patient information leaflets).
Using interpreting and presenting medicines data to highlight issues and risks to support decision-making.
Undertaking clinical audits of prescribing in areas directed by the GPs or on behalf of the Federation, feedback the results and implement changes in conjunction with the practice team.
Implementing changes to medicines that result from MHRA alerts, product withdrawal and other local and national guidance.
Assisting ICB colleagues to monitor practice prescribing against the local health economys 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 and ICB colleagues in seeing and maintaining a practice formulary that is hosted on the practices computer system. Auditing practices compliance against NICE technology assessment guidance. Cascade and provide newsletters or bulletins on important prescribing messages
Providing education and training to primary healthcare team on therapeutics and medicines optimisation.
Working with the general practice team to ensure the practice is compliant with CQC standards where medicines are involved.
Supporting public health campaigns. To provide specialist knowledge on all public health programmes available to the general public
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Masters degree in pharmacy (MPharm) (or equivalent)
- Independent prescriber or working towards/intent of gaining independent prescribing qualification
Desirable
- Specialist knowledge acquired through post- graduate diploma level or equivalent training/experience
Other
Essential
- Self-Motivation
- Adaptable
- Full driving licence
- In date DBS
- Safeguarding adult and children level three training
- Immunisation status
- Basic life support training
Professional Registration
Essential
- Mandatory registration with General Pharmaceutical Council
Desirable
- Membership of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society A member of or working towards Faculty membership of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society
Experience
Essential
- Minimum of 5 years post- qualification experience. In depth therapeutic and clinical knowledge and understanding of the principles of evidence- based healthcare. An appreciation of the nature of GPs and general practices 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) Is able to plan, manage, monitor, advise and review general medicine optimisation
Desirable
- Previous management experience
- An appreciation of the nature of primary care prescribing, concepts of rational prescribing and strategies for improving prescribing
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Masters degree in pharmacy (MPharm) (or equivalent)
- Independent prescriber or working towards/intent of gaining independent prescribing qualification
Desirable
- Specialist knowledge acquired through post- graduate diploma level or equivalent training/experience
Other
Essential
- Self-Motivation
- Adaptable
- Full driving licence
- In date DBS
- Safeguarding adult and children level three training
- Immunisation status
- Basic life support training
Professional Registration
Essential
- Mandatory registration with General Pharmaceutical Council
Desirable
- Membership of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society A member of or working towards Faculty membership of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society
Experience
Essential
- Minimum of 5 years post- qualification experience. In depth therapeutic and clinical knowledge and understanding of the principles of evidence- based healthcare. An appreciation of the nature of GPs and general practices 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) Is able to plan, manage, monitor, advise and review general medicine optimisation
Desirable
- Previous management experience
- An appreciation of the nature of primary care prescribing, concepts of rational prescribing and strategies for improving prescribing
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).
Employer details
Employer name
Durham Dales Health Federation
Address
Unit 51 Innovation Hse, Longfield Rd
South Church Enterprise Park
Bishop Auckland
Durham
DL14 6XB
Employer's website
https://ddhf.co.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)
