PCN Pharmacist

As the resident medicines expert at Churchmere Medical Group, you'll lead on the full range of clinical pharmacy work that keeps a busy general practice running safely and well. This means owning repeat prescribing and medicines reconciliation, leading structured medication reviews and polypharmacy clinics, and taking clinical responsibility for the medicines management of your patient population. You'll be the go‑to for GPs, nursing staff and the wider practice team when complex medicines questions arise, and you'll take the lead on medicines safety, MHRA alerts, and high‑risk drug monitoring.

Core Clinical Responsibilities

• Repeat Prescribing and Medicines Optimisation: take clinical ownership of the repeat prescribing process at your practice, review prescription requests with a clinical eye, identify opportunities to optimise, deprescribe, or intervene, and ensure the pipeline is a driver of patient safety.
• Medicines Reconciliation: lead on medicines reconciliation following hospital discharge, outpatient appointments and transfers of care, identify and resolve discrepancies, reduce the risk of medicines‑related harm at points of transition, and ensure patients receive the medicines they need when they need them.
• Structured Medication Reviews: conduct structured medication reviews with patients who have complex polypharmacy and multi‑morbidity, review the ongoing need for each medicine, identify monitoring gaps, and implement prescribing changes where qualified to do so, aiming for better patient outcomes rather than completed templates.
• Long‑Term Condition Management: run clinics and manage your own caseload for patients with long‑term conditions where medicines play a central role, including hypertension, diabetes, COPD, heart failure and anticoagulation; work proactively to keep patients well managed, reducing avoidable GP appointments and unplanned hospital admissions.
• Medicines Safety: take the lead on medicines safety work within your practice, including MHRA safety alerts, ECLIPSE monitoring, high‑risk drug audits, and risk stratification searches to identify patients at elevated risk of medicines‑related harm.
• Patient‑Facing Medicines Support: provide direct support to patients with questions, concerns or queries about their medicines, by telephone and face to face, reducing the burden on GPs and reception teams while improving patients' understanding of and engagement with their treatment.
• Care Home Medicines Support: support care home patients within your practice population, conduct medication reviews, support proxy ordering arrangements, advise care home staff on medicines‑related matters, and work proactively with care home teams to reduce medicines‑related risk.
• QOF and Enhanced Services: play an active role in QOF delivery, not as an end‑of‑year task but as an embedded, year‑round function of your clinical work; through repeat prescribing, medication reviews and proactive patient management, help ensure the practice consistently meets its quality indicators.
• Education and Clinical Leadership: act as the medicines expert for the practice team, providing advice, guidance and informal education to GPs, nurses, and other clinical and administrative staff on medicines‑related matters; contribute to antimicrobial stewardship, support implementation of local and national prescribing guidelines, and help build a culture where medicines are managed to the highest standard.

Independent Prescribing

If you hold an independent prescribing qualification, you'll use it fully in this role, having clinical autonomy and system access to prescribe directly, reducing unnecessary GP involvement in routine medicines decisions. If you are working towards your independent prescribing qualification, we will actively support you to complete it, including access to a designated prescribing practitioner where possible.

Essential Qualifications

• Registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council
• MPharm degree or equivalent
• Excellent clinical knowledge across common acute and long‑term conditions seen in general practice
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, able to work confidently with patients, GPs and the wider practice team
• Ability to manage own caseload, prioritise effectively and work under pressure
• Commitment to working at the top of your clinical capability and developing your practice
• Full driving licence and own transport

Desirable Qualifications

• Independent prescribing qualification (or actively working towards)
• Completion of CPPE Primary Care Education Pathway (or willingness to undertake)
• Experience in a primary care or general practice setting

Salary and Benefits

Salary: £47,220 – £59,814 depending on experience and prescribing status. Full time preferred; part time considered. Annual leave and NHS pension scheme. Support towards independent prescribing qualification where not already held. Direct employment by North Shropshire PCN with a stable, supportive employment framework. Member of a wider PCN pharmacy team of eight pharmacists and six pharmacy technicians.