CLINICAL PHARMACIST

Wapping Group Practice offers an exciting opportunity for an experienced pharmacist to work within a well-established, friendly and innovative team. As a GP Practice Pharmacist, you will provide patient‑facing appointments, advice, treatment and administrative support within a general practice setting. Our clinical pharmacists work as part of the general practice team and are supported by a diverse, multi‑skilled professional team of clinical and non‑clinical staff, delivering high‑quality, person‑centred, holistic care to patients registered with the Wapping Group Practice.

This is a permanent part‑time position from 8‑12 hours a week, working in a well‑established team.

We are looking for a candidate who is enthusiastic, dedicated and can demonstrate the ability to give a friendly, caring and professional service to our 11,000 patients.

Salary depends on experience – £40k‑52k.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will be a qualified pharmacist holding an independent prescribing qualification (desirable, not essential), acting within professional boundaries as part of a multidisciplinary team comprising GPs, ANPs, Physician Associates, Paramedics and First Contact Physios.

You will receive continuous professional development through our clinicians, as well as focused training to develop your clinical skills.

Your support network will include a clinical supervisor and an extended admin/management team. Additional training will be provided for any areas of identified development.

Clinical progression, training cost support, full indemnity cover paid by the practice, onsite parking available.

About us

We are based at Wapping High Street, a 2‑minute walk from Wapping London Overground Station. We are a well‑respected, established training and teaching practice with a fully comprehensive team of doctors (9), nurses (2), pharmacists (4), HCA (2) and support staff (12). We use the EMIS Web clinical system, achieve over 95% QOF, and hold a CQC rating of Good.

The surgery is forward‑thinking and constantly looks for options to increase patient care within the community. We are passionate about our patients and work closely with the PCN, utilising additional services to help avoid hospital visits.

We highly value both our patients and our staff and can offer good CPD opportunities as experience increases.

Job responsibilities

Clinical/Contractual Support

• Provide leadership on person‑centred medicines optimisation, ensuring prescribers conserve antibiotics in line with local antimicrobial stewardship guidance, and contribute to quality and outcomes frameworks and enhanced services.
• Through structured medication reviews, support patients to take their medicines effectively, reduce waste and promote self‑care.
• Assume a leadership role in integrating general practice with wider healthcare teams (including community and hospital pharmacy) to improve patient outcomes and manage general practice workload.
• Develop relationships and work closely with other pharmacy professionals across PCNs and the wider health and social care system.
• Take a central role in shared care protocols, clinical research with medicines, liaison with specialist pharmacists (including mental health), and anticoagulation, and be part of a professional clinical network with appropriate supervision.
• Conduct high‑risk drug monitoring, participate in audits set by CCG or borough‑wide aims, and run searches for local and national medication alerts/shortages.
• Work as part of a multi‑disciplinary team in a patient‑facing role to clinically assess and treat patients using expert knowledge of medicines for specific disease areas.
• Manage care of patients with chronic diseases, undertaking clinical medication reviews to proactively manage complex polypharmacy, especially in the elderly, care‑home residents, those with multiple comorbidities (frailty, COPD, asthma) and people with learning disabilities or autism (via the STOMP Stop Over Medication Programme).
• Review the ongoing need for each medicine, its monitoring requirements, and recommend optimisations to Senior Pharmacists or GPs.

Patient‑facing Clinical Medication Review

Review the ongoing need for each medicine, monitor usage, and recommend optimisations to Senior Pharmacists or GPs.

Management of common/minor/self‑limiting ailments

Manage a caseload of patients with common, minor or self‑limiting ailments while working within scope of practice and limits of competence.

Signpost to community pharmacy and refer 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.

Medicine information to practice staff and patients

• Answer relevant medicine‑related enquiries from GPs, other practice staff, other healthcare teams (e.g. community pharmacy) and patients.
• Suggest and recommend solutions and provide follow‑up for patients to monitor the effect of any changes.
• Conduct appropriate database searches, keeping up with MHRA and NICE alerts/guidance to support safe patient care.

Unplanned hospital admissions

• Review medicines associated with unplanned hospital admissions and readmissions through audit and individual patient reviews.
• Introduce changes to reduce prescribing of these medicines to high‑risk patient groups.
• Manage medicines at discharge from hospital, reconcile medications following discharge, identify and rectify unexplained changes, and work with patients and community pharmacists to ensure continuity of medicines supply to high‑risk groups.

Repeat prescribing

• Produce and implement a practice repeat prescribing policy.
• Manage the repeat prescribing reauthorisation process by reviewing patient requests, reviewing medicines reaching review dates and flagging those needing review.
• Ensure patients have appropriate monitoring tests in place when required.
• Identify cohorts of patients at high risk of harm from medicines through pre‑prepared computer searches.
• Provide pharmaceutical advice for the development and implementation of new services with medicinal components (e.g. treatment pathways, patient information leaflets).
• Comply with local medicines management requirements.

Information management

• Analyse, interpret and present medicines data to highlight issues and risks to support decision‑making.
• Undertake clinical audits of prescribing in areas directed by GPs, provide feedback and implement changes in conjunction with the practice team.
• Present audit findings to improve service delivery.
• Implement changes to medicines from MHRA alerts, product withdrawals and other guidance.
• Monitor practice prescribing against the local health economy’s RAG list and recommend to GPs when medicines should be prescribed by hospital doctors or shared care.
• Assist in maintaining a practice formulary hosted on the practice computer system.
• Audit practice compliance against NICE technology assessment guidance.

Care Quality Commission

Work with the general practice team to ensure the practice complies with CQC standards where medicines are involved.

Public health

Support public health campaigns and provide specialist knowledge on public health programmes available to the general public.

Collaborative Working Relationships

• Liaise with CCG colleagues, including CCG pharmacists, on prescribing matters to ensure consistency of patient care.
• Interact with Heads of MOT for peer support.
• Use appropriate communication to gain cooperation of patients, senior and peer colleagues, and other professionals, including NHS/private organisations such as CCGs.
• Foster and maintain strong links with all services across the locality.
• Integrate general practice with community and hospital pharmacy teams.
• Collaborate with PCN pharmacy technicians, social prescribers, physician associates, dentists, health and social care teams, dieticians, community nurses and other allied health professionals.

Leadership

• Demonstrate understanding of the pharmacy role in governance and implement it within the workplace.
• Improve quality within service limitations, possess basic knowledge of QI methodology.
• Review yearly progress and develop clear plans to achieve results set by others.
• Motivate self to achieve goals.
• Promote diversity and equality in people‑management techniques and lead by example.

Management

• Understand national priorities and their implications for the team or service.
• Understand the process for effective resource utilisation.
• Conform to relevant standards of practice, identify and resolve risk management issues according to policy/protocol.
• Follow professional and organisational policies for performance management.
• Extend boundaries of service delivery within the team.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Mandatory registration with General Pharmaceutical Council.
• Master’s degree in pharmacy or equivalent.
• Membership of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.
• Member of or working towards Faculty membership of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.
• Specialist knowledge from postgraduate diploma level or equivalent training or experience.
• Independent prescriber or working towards/intent of obtaining independent prescribing qualification.

Experience

• Minimum of 2 years post‑qualification experience.
• Experience in general practice.
• Appreciation of primary care prescribing, concepts of rational medicine use.
• Excellent interpersonal, influencing and negotiating skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Able to plan, manage, monitor, advise and review general medicine optimisation.
• In‑depth therapeutic and clinical knowledge and an understanding of the principles of evidence‑based healthcare.
• Ability to communicate complex and sensitive information in an understandable form to a variety of audiences (e.g. patients).

Other

• Self‑motivation.
• Adaptability.
• Safeguarding – adult and children level three.
• Information Governance toolkit completion.
• Immunisation status.
• Basic life support training.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and will require a submission to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.