Lead Clinical Pharmacist

Fixed-term (9-12 months, maternity cover) Full-time (option to compress hours into 4 days) Start date: August- September. This role involves overseeing the professional, clinical and pharmaceutical aspects of medication management, collaborating with medical staff and adhering to guidelines to ensure safe, cost-effective medication use while minimising inappropriate usage risks. It involves leading the PCN team of pharmacists, driving evidence-based pharmaceutical care within primary care, ensuring patient safety and effective outcomes.

Main duties of the job

• Lead and deliver a specialist clinical pharmacy service within the PCN, providing expert medicines optimisation, resolving patient-specific medication issues, and supporting safe, effective prescribing.
• Undertake clinical assessment, drug monitoring (TDM), and management of adverse drug reactions (ADR).
• Provide leadership to the pharmacy team, including clinical pharmacists and technicians, overseeing workflow, rota coordination, performance management, and service delivery in line with NHSE and local guidance.
• Drive prescribing efficiency, support implementation of evidence-based systems, and contribute to chronic disease management clinics to optimise patient outcomes and minimise risk.
• Lead on clinical governance, audit, and quality improvement, ensuring compliance with national standards, CQC requirements, and patient safety alerts.
• Support PCN development, working collaboratively with GP practices and community pharmacy.
• Deliver education and training and contribute to research and audit activities.

Job responsibilities

• Clinical: To lead and direct clinical pharmacy activities when delivering a specialist pharmacy service, including identifying and resolving individual patient medicines care issues and providing specialist pharmacy advice. This involves employing a systematic approach to individual patient care, conducting drug monitoring (TDM), and addressing adverse drug reactions (ADR) promptly and effectively.
• To provide education and support, as part of the multidisciplinary team, to patients managing long-term conditions, enhancing patient knowledge and concordance.
• To promptly and efficiently answer medicines information queries from patients and healthcare professionals, improving information provision and pharmacy awareness.
• Team Management: Provide leadership, direction, and support to the wider pharmacy team in their roles and tasks related to prescribing.
• Set performance objectives, conduct regular evaluations, and provide constructive feedback to ensure high-quality work output from the wider pharmacy team, including clinical pharmacists and pharmacy technicians.
• Coordinate the workflow within the team, ensuring efficient processes, and timely completion of tasks related to prescribing activities within the PCN.
• Coordinate the rota, and coordination of tasks and activities among team members, ensuring adherence to NHSE and local protocols and guidelines for efficient processes and timely completion of prescribing-related tasks.
• Resource Management: Lead the identification and delivery of prescribing efficiencies with medicines, contributing to the managed entry of new medicines and ensuring adherence to local and national recommendations.
• Manage staff on a day-to-day basis, including recruitment and HR functions, to ensure delivery of the clinical pharmacy service within the specialist area aligns with national standards and service specifications.
• Prescribing Management: Contribute to the development and implementation of evidence-based prescribing systems for primary care, ensuring adherence to local and national recommendations and attainment of Prescribing Indicators.
• Provide leadership and contribute to the development of clinics and systems to maximise benefits and minimise risks to patients of medicines, particularly in chronic disease management.
• Clinical Governance: Facilitate the delivery of national and local NHS Health strategy policies, monitoring and evaluating prescribing against quality standards to ensure safe practices and service quality improvement.
• Community Pharmacy Development: Participate in developing Cam Medical PCN (Primary Care Network), supporting key projects and task groups, and fostering relationships between community pharmacists and practices.
• Education and Research: Lead pharmacy research and audit, reporting findings at local and national levels.
• Deliver education and training to pharmacists, healthcare professionals, students, patients, and carers through formal settings, workshops, and teaching sessions.
• Communication: Document pharmaceutical care issues in patient records and inform medical/nursing staff of urgent actions required.
• Implement and communicate clinical governance and medicines management objectives, ensuring adherence to guidelines and safe prescribing practices.
• Provide specialist information and support to junior pharmacists.
• Convey pharmaceutical information tactfully to patients and healthcare professionals, ensuring understanding and compliance.
• Facilitate effective communication within the pharmacy team and with other healthcare providers to ensure continuity of care.
• Quality: Lead the development and implementation of pharmacy and practice-wide guidelines and policies, ensuring compliance with relevant legislation.
• Support senior management and partners across the PCN in various activities including CQC requirements, governance, and risk management, with a focus on medicines management.
• Lead the oversight to ensure effective monitoring and action-taking on high-risk drug alerts and patient safety alerts, with accountability for compliance during CQC inspections.