Lead Clinical Pharmacist 8B - Medicines Information & Palliative Care in Ormskirk

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NHS AfC: Band 8b

Main area Pharmacy Grade NHS AfC: Band 8b Contract Permanent Hours Full time - 37.5 hours per week Job ref 409-S8122294

Site Southport and Ormskirk Hospitals Town Ormskirk Salary £66,582 - £77,368 per annum Salary period Yearly Closing 06/08/2026 23:59 Interview date 14/08/2026

After applying via NHS Jobs, your submitted application will be imported into our preferred Third-party recruitment system. All subsequent information regarding your application will be generated from apps.trac.jobs. You will not be able to track the progress of your application or receive messages through the NHS Jobs website, and furthermore, as an employer, we will not be able to respond to any e-mails sent to us via the NHS Jobs website. By applying for this post you are agreeing to "name of trust" transferring the information contained in this application to its preferred applicant management system. If you are appointed to a post information will also be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system.

Job overview

We are looking for a motivated, dynamic and compassionate individual capable of leading the medicines information service (0.6WTE) across Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust , with 0.4 WTE commitment to palliative care service at Queenscourt Hospice in Southport. Queenscourt Hospice is an independent, charitable, voluntary body, aiming to provide individualised, holistic, specialist palliative care for adults who have advanced, progressive and incurable illness.

The post holder will be responsible for leading the development, management and delivery of the medicines information service and be lead pharmacist for palliative care in MWL

The postholder will need excellent interpersonal and communication skills and the ability to organise and prioritise their work. They will also require previous experience, knowledge and understanding of medicines information and palliative care.

The successful candidate will be based at Ormskirk Hospital and will be expected to participate in weekend and pharmacy out of hours emergency service for Southport and Ormskirk sites.

This post has been in place for 3 years and due to progression of the current postholder, and successful collaboration with Queenscourt Hospice and integration of end of life pharmaceutical care at MWL, we are keen to further establish this role.

Main duties of the job

Lead and manage all aspects of the Trust’s Medicines Information Service, ensuring that the service complies with the national standards specified by UK Medicines Information for service delivery and resources.

Provide professional, clinical and scientific information and advice to multidisciplinary healthcare staff, patients and carers, to support high quality, individual patient care and medicines management.

Provide a Clinical Pharmacy Service to Queenscourt Hospice. Review prescribing and medication administration practices and facilitate and implement related policies, to enhance efficacy, safety, cost effectiveness and overall quality of treatment.

Attend Queenscourt consultant ward rounds and/or multi-professional meetings. Pharmaceutical support for Controlled Drugs Accountable Officer. Attendance and pharmaceutical input at CQC inspections and engagement meetings at Queenscourt

Working for our organisation

The Trust delivers acute hospital care, intermediate care, community, and primary care services to a population of over 600,000 people with a combined workforce of around 9000 dedicated and skilled staff from 17 locations including Whiston, Southport & Formby, St Helens, Ormskirk and Newton hospitals.

The Trust provides regional services for burns, plastic surgery and spinal injuries to more than 4 million people across Mersey and West Lancashire, Cheshire, the Isle of Man and North Wales.

Our Vision is to deliver 5 Star Patient Care:

• CAREthat is evidence based, high quality and compassionate
• SAFETY that is of the highest standards
• COMMUNICATION that is open, inclusive and respectful
• SYSTEMS that are efficient, patient centred and reliable
• PATHWAYS that are best practice and embedded, but also respect the individual needs of patients

Our achievements include:

• Trust rated Outstanding by CQC Inspection August 2018
• Top 100 places to work in the NHS (NHS Employers & Health Service Journal)
• Awarded National Preceptorship Accreditation (2023) for our Nursing & AHP Preceptorship Programme

Please see our Wellbeing & Benefits booklet for more information on our staff benefits. Accessible version available upon request.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The post holder will

• Lead, manage and provide a comprehensive Medicines Information Service, including an enquiry answering service, for both the Trust and the Local Health Economy, including external business users covered by Service Level Agreements.
• Be part of the Clinical Team and provide Medicines Information training to Pharmacists and Technicians. To provide Medicines Information at ward level wherever possible in line with the Carter Report.
• Audit, monitor and develop the Medicines Information Service within the Trust in line with national and local developments and user feedback.
• Liaise with the Interface Pharmacists in the development of the Pan Mersey Formulary including the promotion, review and dissemination of the Formulary and to audit compliance with the Formulary. Advise on, and facilitate internal review of the formulary with the Clinical Specialists.
• Supervise the Medicines Information duties and activities of junior Clinical Medicines Information Pharmacists.
• Be a key member of the Medicines Optimisation Team within the Trust, developing robust systems to ensure the safe, appropriate and cost-effective use of medicines.
• Liaise with senior members of the Pharmaceutical Teams across the Local Health Economy to ensure key Medicines Management objectives are achieved across the Health Economy.
  Develop and deliver clinical services to Queenscourt Hospice (QCH)
  Review medication prescribing and medication administration to ensure practices are safe, appropriate, and effective and meet with QCH policy across medical and nursing services.
• Undertake medicines reviews as needed to rationalise highly complex drug regimes and provide highly specialised advice on palliative care pharmaceutical matters.
• Represent pharmacy at the MWL trust end of life steering group

Person specification

Our Values

• We are Kind
• We are Open
• We are Inclusive

Qualifications

• Vocational masters degree in pharmacy
• Postgraduate Diploma/MSc in Clinical Pharmacy or relevant experience
• Registration as a pharmacist with General Pharmaceutical Council
• Membership of The Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain
• Accredited tutor for post-graduate clinical diploma
• Post-graduate qualification in Medicines Information and/or Palliative Care

Knowledge & Experience

• Experience as qualified pharmacist in acute hospital pharmacy
• Experience in Medicines Information
• Experience in Palliative Care
• Experience oPublished pharmaceutical research in a peer-reviewed journalf electronic prescribing
• Line Management Experience

Skills

• Ability to affect and manage change
• Self-motivated and able to motivate/ inspire others
• Ability to work on own initiative and as part of a team
• Ability to teach pharmaceutical care within speciality
• Financial awareness regarding the management of drug budgets

Qualities & Attributes

• Committed to patient care
• Approachable and flexible
• Supportive to other members of Pharmacy and multidisciplinary teams

Thank you for considering an application to work for Mersey West Lancashire NHS Trust. MWL is an exciting and forward-thinking NHS Trust who are one of the best places to work for in England.

The Trust may contact you during the recruitment process for your feedback on your experience. We always aim for continuous improvement in our practice.

Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion

We actively cultivate a professional environment of fairness, equality, dignity, and respect for all individuals. We welcome individuals from all backgrounds and value the unique skills, perspective and experience you bring. We are grounded in the belief that diversity enhances our collective strength, fostering innovation and excellence within our workforce. We welcome all applications irrespective of people’s race, disability, gender, sexual orientation, religion/belief, age, gender identity, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy/maternity and in particular those from under- represented groups.

As a Disability Confident Leader, we commit to offering an interview to all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the job (the essential criteria) listed in the personal specification. If you wish to apply under this Guaranteed Interview Scheme, please indicate this on the online application form.

If you are having difficulty completing an online application, or require any disability reasonable adjustments, to the application process, please contact Recruitment@merseywestlancs.nhs.uk

We also commit to offering an interview to all armed forces veterans who meet the minimum criteria for the job (the essential criteria) listed in the personal specification. If you wish to apply under this Guaranteed Interview Scheme, please indicate this on the online application form.

The trust operates anonymous shortlisting where no personal information about you, including your name or personal details are shared with the recruiting manager. No equality information is shared at any time during the recruitment process with the recruiting manager or other people involved in the decision-making process.

The equality monitoring information you provide is used in the following situations: to review our recruitment practices; where a job is limited to a specific person to verify their eligibility to apply; and to offer disability reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process.

Certificate of Sponsorship

eVisa Update

For successful candidates on selected work and study visa routes, who have completed and paid for their applications will no longer receive a visa vignette in passport as evidence of their permission to enter the UK.

Instead, you will be issued with an eVisa only, which is accessed by creating a UKVI account.

Before travelling to the UK, we advise applicants to:

• Understand how to generate an eVisa share code

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

If this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 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.

Please note if applicable, applicants will be required to pay for their DBS check. Costs are deducted from salary following appointment.

If you have not already done so, you are therefore encouraged to enrol for the DBS Update Service to which a small annual fee of £13 per year applies.

Flexible Working

• All employees have the right to request flexible working from day one of employment.
• There is no limit on the number of requests they can make.
• Employees have the right to make requests, have them considered, regardless of the reason.

At Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, we will consider requests for flexible working. We would also encourage you to also discuss flexible working options at interview stage.

Working for Team MWL

Staff recognition is especially important to us; as well as performance reviews and appraisals, we recognise staff through Employee of the month. Along with supporting you to achieve your career goals we offer a generous pension scheme, unsocial hours payments (where applicable), 27 days annual leave on commencement (pro rata) and access to a range of NHS discounts. Our Staff Health and Wellbeing programme offer a variety of services.

The Trust is a non-smoking across all our sites. Failure to follow this rule could lead to disciplinary action. For more information, see the Smoke Free NHS website.

You will be expected to undertake the Trusts' commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults.

You must ensure that your application, including personal statements and behaviour examples, are truthful and factually accurate. Please note plagiarism can include presenting the ideas and experience of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own.

The Trust will not accept applications which are found to be AI generated and will check all applications against AI detection software.

Additional Information

Before applying, we encourage you to review the Trusts Values and Behaviours which are We are KIND, We are OPEN, We are INCLUSIVE, which can be found here .

An applicant guide to help and support you with your application and what to expect during your recruitment journey can be accessed in the supporting documents.

Good luck with your application. We hope to welcome you to Team MWL very soon.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Name Laura Gibson Job title Deputy Chief Pharmacist Email address laura.gibson@merseywestlancs.nhs.uk Telephone number 01704 704166 Additional information

Alternatively, please contact Pharmacy Clinical Services Manager Vicki.Caton@merseywestlancs.nhs.uk, or Louise Charnock, Executive Director for Nursing, Queenscourt Hospice, PA Joanne Oliver 01704 544645 hospice@queenscourt.org.uk