Specialist Haemato-Oncology Pharmacist

Join our Haematology team as a Specialist Haematology pharmacist and play a key role in delivering high-quality, patient-centred care within an evolving service. This exciting opportunity has arisen as we are expanding our Ambulatory Inpatient (AMBIN) model, enabling patients to receive specialist haematology treatments safely outside of an inpatient setting—reducing hospital stays and supporting care closer to home.

This is a very exciting opportunity for a clinical pharmacist with a desire to work within haemato-oncology in one of Europe’s largest centres for treating blood cancers and the largest comprehensive cancer centre in Europe. This post is well supported by our highly trained specialists and will provide a unique and exciting opportunity to work with haemato-oncology cancers, including transplants. We are also a well-established CAR-T centre for which our pharmacy team play an integral role in the delivery of.

Our hospitals offer both NHS, private, inpatient and outpatient care for haemato-oncology cancers, including transplants, chemotherapy and clinical trials and we have one of the largest research portfolios in the country. As a team we are dedicated to embedding enhanced roles for pharmacy technicians and maximising our non-medical prescribing workforce.

Main duties of the job

• To work as an integral member of the haemato-oncology pharmacy team jointly providing an expert pharmacy service to the haemato-oncology patients, multidisciplinary team and provide highly specialist support to the wider pharmacy team in this area.
• To lead on pharmaceutical issues relating to medicines management and clinical trials within the Haemato-oncology unit, ensuring adherence to national guidelines and medicines legislation.
• To be a lead within the pharmacy department for education and training and clinical governance issues relating to Haemato-oncology.
• To provide a framework for the safe, efficient and cost effective use of drug resources within the Haemato-oncology unit by the provision of procedures, protocols and drug usage information.

The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust is a world-leading cancer centre. Our role is to offer our patients the best cancer care available anywhere in the world, and to continue to make a global contribution to finding better ways of diagnosing and treating cancer. We employ over 4,500 staff in a diverse range of careers including nursing, medical, science, radiography, pharmacy, occupational therapy, finance and administrative services. We have two hospitals – one in Chelsea, London, and one in Sutton, Surrey – as well as a Medical Daycare Unit in Kingston Hospital.

At The Royal Marsden, we deal with cancer every day, so we understand how valuable life is. When people entrust their lives to us, they have the right to demand the very best. That's why the pursuit of excellence lies at the heart of everything we do. At the heart of the hospital is our dedicated team. We offer a stimulating and dynamic working environment, a wide range of staff benefits, learning and development opportunities and clear career pathways. There are opportunities to work flexibly across a range of areas and specialities and we welcome flexible working requests from point of hire to support employees work life balance. We are looking for employees who aspire to excellence, share our values and can play a crucial role in our ongoing achievements.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• To provide an expert pharmaceutical service to the Haemato-oncology Unit, ensuring that service development is in line with national and international standards.
• To critically evaluate and interpret published data on new drugs affecting the specialty across the Trust, in conjunction with medical staff, to prepare drug evaluations for the clinical unit prior to application to the Drug and Therapeutics Committee.
• To develop, implement, maintain and audit drug protocols and treatment guidelines for disease management within the clinical unit, following drug evaluations and drug utilisation review, ensuring all guidance is in line with medicines legislation and best practice.
• To assist in the leadership on antifungal medicine use and stewardship, primarily in the cohort of adult haemato-oncology patients in liaison with the Lead Antimicrobial Pharmacist, Microbiology Consultants and Director of the Transplantation programme.
• To ensure safer chemotherapy prescribing by the production of chemotherapy proforma prescriptions for the unit.

Person specificationEducation/Qualifications

• GPhC registration
• Qualification or relevant accreditation in oncology/haematology or speciality Diploma or Degree level study (or equivalent)

Experience

• Working in a multidisciplinary setting providing frontline clinical care.
• Delivering training to multidisciplinary teams.
• Experience of working with clinical trials.
• Pharmacy experience of working with haematopoietic stem cell transplantation, JACIE accredited.

Skills Abilities/knowledge

• Ability to work effectively as part of a team.
• Ability to be flexible in approach to their working environment.
• Work well under pressure.
• Ability to work alone without direct supervision when required.
• Excellent interpersonal skills.
• Ability to initiate and implement change.
• Good time management and organisational skills, ability to prioritise effectively.
• Ability to train other members of staff.
• Ability to use Microsoft Office applications eg Word, Excel, Outlook and advanced literature searching.

Other Requirements

• Good leadership qualities: able to take responsibility and to delegate effectively.
• Good understanding of own limitations and identification of own learning needs.
• Adaptable to change: flexible in accepting new procedures and policies.
• Ability to demonstrate initiative: proactive and self-motivated.
• Progressive and continuing professional development.
• Able to work on both sites and to be flexible to meet the needs of the role.

The Royal Marsden values diversity and is committed to the recruitment and retention of underrepresented minority groups. We particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and minority ethnic candidates, LGBTQ+ candidates and candidates with disabilities. As a Disability Confident Employer, we are working to create a workplace that enables all staff to reach their full potential. We are committed to this because we know that greater diversity and inclusion will lead to an even greater positive impact for the people we serve.

Flu Vaccination – What We Expect of our Staff

At The Royal Marsden we have an immune compromised patient population who we must protect as much as we can against the flu virus. Each year, seasonal flu affects thousands of people in the UK. Occurring mainly in winter, it is an infectious respiratory disease capable of producing symptoms ranging from those similar to a common cold, through to very severe or even fatal disease. The wellbeing of our staff and patients is of the utmost importance to us, and it is the expectation of The Royal Marsden that all patient-facing staff have an annual flu vaccination, provided free of charge by the Trust.