Job responsibilities
The PCN Clinical Pharmacist will:
work as part of a multi-disciplinary team in a
patient facing role to clinically assess and treat patients using their expert
knowledge of medicines to support the management of acute and long-term
conditions
be a prescriber, or completing training to
become a prescriber, and work with and alongside the general practice team;
be responsible for the management of patients
with long term conditions and undertake clinical medication reviews to
proactively manage people with complex polypharmacy, especially the elderly and
those with multiple co-morbidities (in particular frailty, COPD, asthma,
diabetes and cardiovascular disease) and people with learning disabilities or
autism (through STOMP Stop Over Medication Programme);
provide specialist expertise in the use of
medicines whilst helping to address both the public health and social care
needs of patients at the PCNs practice(s) and to help in tackling
inequalities;
provide leadership in the practice on
medicines optimisation systems and processes and quality improvement
contribute to meeting the Quality and outcomes
Framework (QoF) targets, enhanced services and the Investment and Impact Fund
(IIF) indicators
through Structured Medication Reviews (SMRs),
support to improve the patients knowledge of their conditions and associated
treatments and therefore improve adherence to medication, reduce waste and
promote selfcare.
Have a lead role in supporting integration of
general practice with the wider healthcare teams (including community and
hospital pharmacy) as part of the pharmacy integration agenda to help improve
patient outcomes, ensure better access to healthcare and help manage general
practice workload;
build relationships and work closely with
other pharmacy professionals across PCNs and the wider health and social care
system;
take a central role in the clinical aspects of
shared care protocols, clinical research with medicines, liaison with
specialist pharmacists (including mental health and reduction of inappropriate
antipsychotic use in people with learning disabilities).
Key
aspects of PCN pharmacist role
Patient
facing role undertaking face to face medications reviews for:
patients with long term conditions on
polypharmacy
housebound patients
chronic disease management areas identified
as a priority area within the PCN
Review patients with single or multiple
medical problems where medicine optimisation is required.
Review on-going need for each medicine,
assess monitoring requirements and support patients to ensure treatment is
safe, appropriate and optimised for maximum clinical benefit.
Discuss recommendations and outcomes with
relevant members of the PCN team and provide appropriate and timely follow up.
Support patients to optimise medicines by
providing additional written patient information leaflets, and liaise with
community pharmacists about the need for special requirements to aid
adherence.
Management
of Common/Minor Ailments
Support practices in improving patient
access for minor ailments and acute presentations.
Promote the
importance of self-care and signpost patients to community pharmacy led
services e.g. hypertension case finding, new medicines service etc.
Medicines
Information to Practice Staff and Patients
Support resolution of medicines queries from
the practice team, PCN team, community pharmacists and patients.
Provide medicines optimisation updates at
clinical meetings onto inform and improve prescribing within the practice.
Analyse, interpret and present relevant
prescribing data, including audit findings, to practice staff regularly to
highlight prescribing issues.
Communicate
recommended actions relating to medication and medical device safety alerts.
Medicines
Reconciliation
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 resolve
medication issues upon discharge to ensure a seamless transfer of care for
the patient.
Commissioned
improvements for QIPP and medicines optimisation
Support the practice and the PCN in
delivering the outcomes as required in the medicines section of the Clinical
Commissioning Contract
Signposting
Be fully aware of the vast array of services available to
support patients and signpost patients and refer appropriately e.g. social
prescriber, specialist referral etc.
Repeat
Prescribing
Review, implement and support adherence to
the practice repeat prescribing policy.
Manage the repeat prescribing
reauthorisation process by reviewing patient requests for repeat
prescriptions, flagging up those patients needing
a review.
Ensure patients on repeat prescriptions have
the required monitoring and assessments undertaken as appropriate to their
condition(s) and medicines prescribed.
Clinical
Governance
Communicate, action and support
implementation of MHRA alerts, product withdrawals and other local and
national guidelines and formulary recommendations.
Undertake clinical audits in priority areas
identified by the Medicines Optimisation Team or within the PCN and feedback
results to practices and the PCN and support them in implementing
recommendations.
Support practices and PCNs in identifying
and reporting onto NRLS any incidents relating to medicines. Be involved in
investigating medicines incidents and identifying and implementing any
required system improvements.
Support implementation of shared care
protocols in practice, including processes to improve monitoring of high-
risk drugs.
Review the use of medicines most commonly
associated with unplanned hospital admissions and readmissions through audit
and individual patient reviews.
Identify cohorts of patients at high risk of
harm from medicines through computer searches
Work with the general practice team to
ensure the practice is compliant with CQC standards where medicines are
involved.
Education
and Training
Contribute to the provision of education and training on
medicines optimisation and specific therapeutic areas to healthcare
professionals within the PCN and to the wider ICB geography, including the
PCN pharmacy professional network meetings.
Public
Health
To support public health campaigns.
To provide specialist advice on all public
health programmes available to the general public.
General
Undertake any other work supporting
medicines optimisation in GP practices and the PCN commensurate with the
banding of the post and which is agreed between the postholder and the
manager.
Key
Collaborative Working Relationships
The post-holder will be required to work with a wide range of
stakeholders. It is important that the post holder recognises the roles of
other colleagues to person-centred care, and liaises with other stakeholders as
needed for the collective benefit of patients including:
Patients and Patient Participation Groups
(PPGs)
GPs, nurses and other practice staff
Other healthcare professionals including
pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, optometrists, dentists, health and social
care teams, dieticians etc.
Locality / GP prescribing lead and Locality
managers
Community nurses and other allied health
professionals
Integration between general practice community
and hospital pharmacy teams
Ability to work as a member of a team within
the PCN
Collaboration
with network resources to support care management plans and social prescribing
Knowledge,
Skills and Experience Required (please see attached Person Specification)
Has
experience/awareness of the breadth of common acute and long-term conditions
that are likely to be seen in a general medical practice.
Minimum
of 2 years post graduate experience in pharmacy, as demonstrated within a
practice portfolio.
Holds
an independent prescribing qualification, is working towards a qualification or
has the intention to complete this in the future.
Demonstrates an understanding of the role of a
clinical pharmacist within primary care and where it fits into and how it
complements the practice team and the wider PCN team.
Accountable
for delivering professional expertise and direct service provision.
Able
to follow legal, ethical, professional and organisational policies/procedures
and codes of conduct.
Health and
Safety/Risk Management
An expectation is for all staff to have a commitment to promoting
and maintaining a safe and healthy environment and be responsible for their own
and others welfare. In addition, staff
will be expected to undertake the statutory mandatory health and safety
training and other training relevant to their specialist area of work.
Equality
and Diversity
The post-holder must co-operate with all policies and procedures
designed to ensure equality of employment and complete the required statutory
mandatory training.
Patient
Confidentiality
The post-holder should respect patient confidentiality at all
times and not divulge patient information unless sanctioned by the requirements
of the role.
In view of
the nature of the role, this job description is intended to provide an outline
of the duties and responsibilities; it will be subject to review and amendment
as necessary in consultation with the post holder.
