Clinical Pharmacist

Farley Road Medical Practice has an exciting opportunity for a clinical pharmacist to join our practice team. In post, you'll play a key role in medicines optimisation, long-term condition management, and supporting safe, effective prescribing.

Main duties of the job

• You will work to ensure safe, evidence based, and cost-effective prescribing.
• You will also be responsible for offering support to general practice staff in relation to prescription and medication queries as well as conducting medicines reconciliation on transfer of care.
• Performing medication reviews, advising patients on prescriptions, and optimising prescribing.
• Carrying out medication reviews, including new patient medication reviews and structured medication reviews.
• Supporting with audits, ICB projects, and CQC-related audit work.
• Working with Prescription Clerks and supporting them with queries and medicines management.
• Assisting in the development of prescribing processes and protocols.
• Take on responsibility for areas of chronic disease management (QOF), working proactively with other healthcare professionals.
• Support the delivery of the new Network Contract Directed Enhanced Service (DES).
• Conduct structured medication reviews to proactively manage patients with complex polypharmacy.
• Interface with community and hospital colleagues to help resolve medication-related issues.
• Clinical support assisting GPs with complex prescribing queries and safety monitoring.
• Patient education supporting patients to understand and manage their medicines.

About us

Farley Road Medical Practice is part of SELNASH PCN.

Mission statement

To provide care and services that we and our families would want to use.

Vision statement

Enabling people to live healthy and a more independent life through high quality seamless care.

Job responsibilities

To support, promote and implement high quality, evidence-based, cost effective prescribing. This includes patient medication reviews, helping the practice to achieve prescribing targets and supporting the implementation of national and local guidance in order to improve patient care.

The post holder is a pharmacist, who acts within their professional boundaries, supporting and working alongside a team of pharmacists in general practice. The post holder will provide primary support to general practice staff with regards to prescription and medication queries. They will help support the repeat prescription system, deal 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 practice(s).

The post holder will provide clinical leadership on medicines optimisation and quality improvement and manage some aspects of the quality and outcomes framework and enhanced services. The post holder will ensure that the practice integrates with community and hospital pharmacy to help utilise skill mix, improve patient outcomes, ensure better access to healthcare and help manage workload. The role is pivotal to improving the quality of care and operational efficiencies so requires motivation and passion to deliver excellent service within general practice.

Primary Duties and Areas of Responsibility

• Patient facing Long-term condition Clinics. See (where appropriate) patients with single or multiple medical problems where medicine optimisation is required (e.g. COPD, asthma). Review the on-going need for each medicine, a review of monitoring needs and an opportunity to support patients with their medicines taking ensuring they get the best use of their medicines (i.e. medicines optimisation). Make appropriate recommendations to Senior Pharmacists or GPs for medicine improvement.
• Patient facing Clinical Medication Review. Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for senior clinical pharmacist, nurses and/or GP on prescribing and monitoring.
• Management of common/minor/self-limiting ailments. 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.
• Patient facing medicines support. Provide patient facing clinics for those with questions, queries and concerns about their medicines in the practice.
• Telephone medicines support. Provide a telephone help line for patients with questions, queries and concerns about their medicines.
• Medicine information to practice staff and patients. Answers 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.
• Unplanned hospital admissions. Review 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.
• Management of medicines at discharge from hospital. To 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 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).
• Signposting. Ensure 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.
• Repeat prescribing. Produce and implement 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.
• Risk stratification. 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.
• Service development. Contribute pharmaceutical advice for the development and implementation of new services that have medicinal components (e.g. advice on treatment pathways and patient information leaflets).
• Information management. Analyse, interpret and present medicines data to highlight issues and risks to support decision making.
• Medicines quality improvement. Undertake clinical audits of prescribing in areas directed by the GPs, feedback the results and implement changes in conjunction with the practice team.
• Medicines safety. Implement changes to medicines that result from MHRA alerts, product withdrawal and other local and national guidance.
• Implementation of local and national guidelines and formulary recommendations. Monitor practice prescribing against the local health economy's 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 in seeing and maintaining a practice formulary that is hosted on the practices computer system. Auditing practices compliance against NICE technology assessment guidance. Provide newsletters or bulletins on important prescribing messages.
• Education and Training. Provide education and training to primary healthcare team on therapeutics and medicines optimisation.
• Care Quality Commission. Work with the general practice team to ensure the practice is compliant with CQC standards where medicines are involved.
• Public health. To support public health campaigns. To provide specialist knowledge on all public health programmes available to the general public.

Collaborative Working Relationships

• Recognises the roles of other colleagues within the organisation 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).
• Demonstrates ability to work as a member of a team.
• Is able to recognise personal limitations and refer to more appropriate colleague(s) when necessary.
• Actively work toward developing and maintaining effective working relationships both within and outside the practice and locality.
• Foster and maintain strong links with all services across locality.
• Explores the potential for collaborative working and takes opportunities to initiate and sustain such relationships.
• Demonstrates ability to integrate general practice with community and hospital pharmacy teams.
• Liaises with CCG colleagues including CCG Pharmacists on prescribing related matters to ensure consistency of patient care and benefit.
• Liaises with CCG pharmacists and Heads of Medicines Management/Optimisation to benefit from peer support.
• Liaises with other stakeholders as needed for the collective benefit of patients including but not limited to: GPs, nurses and other practice staff, other healthcare professionals including CCG pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, optometrists, dentists, health and social care teams and dieticians etc., locality / GP prescribing lead, locality managers, community nurses and other allied health professionals, community and hospital pharmacy teams, hospital staff with responsibilities for prescribing and medicines optimisation.

Knowledge, Skills and Experience Required

• Completion of an undergraduate degree in pharmacy and registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council.
• Minimum of 2 years experience as a pharmacist.
• Have experience and an awareness of common acute and long-term conditions that are likely to be seen in general practice.
• May hold or be working towards an independent prescribing qualification.
• Recognises priorities when problem-solving and identifies deviations from normal pattern and is able to refer to seniors or GPs when appropriate.
• Able to follow legal, ethical, professional and organisational policies/procedures and codes of conduct.
• Involves patients in decisions about prescribed medicines and supporting adherence as per NICE guidelines.

Person Specification

• Current UK professional registration; registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council.
• Right to work in the UK.
• Evidence of continuing professional development.
• Experience of patient consultation.
• Good understanding of primary care structure and general practice.
• Good clinical knowledge.
• Good critical appraisal skills.
• Experience of working with GPs.
• To be a proactive, organised, supportive team player.
• Completion of CPPE Pharmacists in GP pathway.
• Non-medical prescriber registration.
• Knowledge of GP clinical computer system: Emis Web.

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.