Band 7 PCN Clinical Pharmacist

The post holder is a pharmacist, who acts within their professional boundaries, supporting and working alongside a team of pharmacists in general practice. In this role they will be supported by a senior clinical pharmacist who will develop, manage and mentor them and by a GP who will provide clinical supervision.

To provide clinical leadership on medicines optimisation and quality improvement as well as managing aspects of medicines safety and antimicrobial stewardship. To work as part of a multidisciplinary team in a patient facing role and take responsibility for areas of chronic disease management within the practice and undertake clinical medication reviews to proactively manage patients with complex polypharmacy. The post holder will provide primary support to general practice staff for prescription and medication queries. They will help support the repeat prescription system 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).

Main duties of the job

• Medication review for Older People with Frailty - Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients (including patients in care homes) and produce recommendations for the GP on prescribing and monitoring.
• 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.
• To support the care closer to home integrated networks - Set up and manage systems to identify and support high-risk groups of patients (e.g. those on 4+ medicines or unplanned admissions).
• Provide advice on medicines optimisation and develop personalised care plans - Long-term condition clinics, e.g. Diabetes.
• See patients with single medical problems where medicine optimisation is required (e.g. COPD, asthma) - Make recommendations to GPs for medicine improvements.
• Clinical advice and expertise on medicines to practice staff, multidisciplinary teams and patients - Answers all medicine-related enquiries from GPs, other practice staff and patients with queries about medicines. Signposting to community pharmacy for management of minor illness, medicines use reviews, new medicines service and other locally commissioned services. Referring to GPs or other healthcare professionals, where appropriate.

About us

We are the Haringey GP Federation, a young and growing organisation working with 34 member practices in the diverse and vibrant borough of Haringey in north London. Our vision is to support the people of Haringey to be healthier and happier. We do this by strengthening, innovating and advocating for strong and sustainable General Practice in Haringey. Our friendly, collaborative team has deservedly earned a strong reputation for providing best practice Primary Care services at scale. We are proud that our team's achievements have won external recognition. We welcome and encourage innovative ways of working which respond to the changing needs of the population in Haringey. We are building a sustainable workforce that is fully equipped and motivated for the work we undertake and constantly seek to expand opportunities which allow development for our staff and practices alike.

Job responsibilities

• To develop and facilitate a good working relationship with community pharmacists and other local providers of healthcare.
• To plan and organise own workload, including audit and project work, and training sessions for members of the practice team, community nurse team, patients, and carers.
• To record personally generated information and maintain a database of information relating to the work done in the practice(s). Personally generated information includes information and records relating to audit and clinical work undertaken by the post holder, reference notes relating to clinical/technical information. The database includes maintaining up-to-date, detailed records of all work done in the practices for which the post holder is accountable (done by the post holder or others).
• To maintain registration as a pharmacist and comply with appropriate professional codes.
• As appropriate to the post, to maintain and develop professional competence and expertise, keep up to date with medical/therapeutic evidence and opinion, and local and national service, legislation and policy developments, agree objectives and a personal development plan and participate in the appraisal process.
• To attend local, regional and national meetings of relevance as agreed with the post manager.
• To undertake any other duties commensurate with the post grade as agreed with the post line manager.

All employees should understand that it is their personal responsibility to comply with all organisational and statutory requirements (e.g. health and safety, equal treatment and diversity, confidentiality and clinical governance).

Person Specification

• Qualifications: Masters degree in pharmacy (MPharm) or equivalent; Post-graduate clinical diploma level or equivalent training/experience or Independent prescriber.
• Experience: Minimum of 3 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. An appreciation of the nature of primary care prescribing, concepts of rational prescribing and strategies for improving prescribing.
• Excellent interpersonal, influencing and negotiating skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Recognises priorities when problem solving and identifies deviations from the normal pattern and is able to refer to seniors or GPs when appropriate.
• Demonstrates accountability for delivering professional expertise and direct service provision.
• Experience of motivational interviewing and able to train other staff.
• Demonstrate the ability to communicate complex and sensitive information in an understandable form to a variety of audiences.
• Is able to plan, manage, monitor, advise and review general medicine optimisation issues in core areas for long term conditions.
• Familiarity with GP systems.
• Able to obtain and analyse complex technical information.

Professional Registration

• Registration with General Pharmaceutical Council.
• A member of or working towards Faculty membership of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

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.