Principal Digital Pharmacist

Welcome to Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and thank you for your interest. In addition to receiving tertiary referrals from across the South East of England, we have a network of ‘spoke’ sites at district general hospitals enabling our consultants to offer their expertise with routine treatments and consultations as close to patients’ homes as is possible. With the recent addition of video led ‘virtual’ consultations we also enable patients who have some distance to travel to avoid the additional stress and worry of a long journey. Working at QVH combines the excitement, challenge and career opportunities of many larger organisations with the satisfaction of delivering excellent patient care that really does re-build our patients’ lives. We also offer attractive benefits such as tailored personal development to support career aspirations, including accredited clinical and management development programmes, flexible working arrangements for a work-life balance that suits you and your needs, and a dedicated reward programme, offering a range of national and local discounts, cashback and tax relief schemes.

Sustainability

At Queen Victoria Hospital we want to be the first Net Zero Hospital in England, and to achieve that wants every member of staff to be a green champion. The way in which the Trust works has a significant impact on the organisation’s carbon footprint and that of our patients. From the heat, light and power supplies within the hospital to avoiding unnecessary patient journeys, the Trust is empowering all staff to create a sustainable health and care environment for future generations. The Trust expects all staff to reuse and recycle more, to use energy and water efficiently, to walk or cycle to work if you can, and to have a focus on sustainability in the workplace.

This role is to act as Lead Principal Digital (ePMA) Pharmacist implementing, developing, and supporting all elements of the Trusts Electronic Patient Records (EPR) relating to prescribing and medicines usage and to work closely with the Pharmacy Department, IT department, EPR team as well as other Trusts using the same EPR system.

Main duties of the job

• Be an expert in their field and will be expected to make decisions about situations which may involve a number of complicated or highly complex components.
• Overall responsibility for all pharmacy related digital systems build, implementation and ongoing development, governance and maintenance. This includes the Trust ePMA system across QVH, in line with legislation, national priorities and Trust objectives.
• Develop a strategy to inform the ongoing maintenance and post-implementation development of the ePMA system.
• Establish systems to identify key therapeutic changes relating to the use and/or safety of medicines e.g., medicines database, safety alerts, formulary changes, protocol and guideline changes etc; and ensure that these are built into the ePMA system and prescribing practice in a timely way.
• Main point of contact to provide highly specialist pharmaceutical knowledge and expertise around all future phases of build, roll-out, ongoing maintenance and future development of the Trust ePMA system.

Working for our organisation

Rated GOOD overall with outstanding care by the CQC. A specialist NHS hospital providing life-changing reconstructive surgery, burns care and rehabilitation services across the South of England and beyond. We specialise in conditions of the eyes (corneoplastics), hands, head and neck cancer and skin cancer, reconstructive breast surgery, maxillofacial surgery and prosthetics, providing regional and national services in these areas of clinical expertise. Our world-leading clinical teams also treat more common conditions of the eyes, hands, skin, and teeth for the people of East Grinstead and the surrounding areas. In addition, QVH provides a minor injuries unit, expert therapies, a sleep service, and a growing portfolio of community-based services. Patients consistently rate QVH amongst the top hospitals in the country for quality of care. Our success is underpinned by the skills and enthusiasm of our staff and a strong culture of partnership. We are fully committed to training and development of the workforce with support for continuing education and learning.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Act as a team leader for the EPMA pharmacy team.
• EPMA system configuration, system development and testing.
• Training and supporting all staff involved with the EPMA process (pharmacy, prescribers, nurses and AHPs) encouraging adoption of digital working.
• Contribute toward strategic planning for Trust Digital strategy and ensure medicines optimisation focus within the digital programme.
• Provide clinical governance leadership for the EPMA system, primary point of contact for risk management of the EPMA system, managing incidents, issues and clinical concerns.
• Act as an ambassador and clinical representative for the EPR and a champion for EPMA, engaging staff and promoting the benefits.

Person specification

Qualifications

• Registered pharmacist (GPhC).
• Independent prescribing post qualification diploma or able to demonstrate knowledge through experience.

Experience

• Extensive delivery of pharmaceutical care to patients.
• Managed a clinical pharmacy service.
• Multidisciplinary working.
• Staff management.
• Service improvement/change involvement.
• GCP training.

Knowledge

• Broad clinical knowledge of drugs and application.
• Advanced clinical pharmacy knowledge in area.
• Knowledge of law and relevant medicines guidance.
• Demonstrate or working towards RPS domains for advanced practice.

Skills

• Interpersonal skills.
• Excellent communication skills across all aspects.
• Ability to motivate.
• Ability to work across boundaries.
• Ability to gather and analyse information and compile reports.
• Apply risk management.
• Take into account patient preference and protected characteristics.

Attributes

• Identify and promote best practice.
• Ability to communicate highly complex information to a range of people.
• Professional accountability.
• Lead, develop and promote clinical services.
• Flexible / able to cope with unpredictable work patterns and work under pressure.

The closing date given is a guide only. There may be some occasions when we have to close a vacancy once sufficient applications have been received. You are therefore advised to submit your application as early as possible to avoid disappointment.

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.