Clinical Pharmacist in Taunton

Tone Valley PCN is excited to announce the recruitment of one full time PCN Clinical Pharmacist to work within our existing well established and supportive team of Clinical Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians. We are seeking an enthusiastic and motivated Clinical Pharmacist to join the Tone Valley Primary Care Network (PCN), which cares for a population of over 36,500 people in Taunton, Creech and North Curry.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will work in a patient-facing and non-patient-facing role, depending on the needs of the individual practices, and this will be subject to review as the role develops. The post holder will work as part of a multi-disciplinary team supporting medicines management within the practice. The post holder may be asked to 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 may provide primary support to general practice staff with regards to prescription and medication queries. They will help support the repeat prescription and dispensing system, help with acute prescription requests, support medicines reconciliation on transfer of care and systems for safer prescribing, providing expertise in clinical medicines advice while addressing both public health and social care needs of patients. The post holder will provide clinical support on medicines optimisation and quality improvement and will support and manage some aspects of the quality and outcomes framework, dispensing services quality scheme and enhanced services. The post holder will ensure that the practice integrates with community and hospital pharmacy to help utilise skill mix, improve patient outcomes, ensure better access to healthcare and help manage workload. The post holder will be either an independent prescriber or be committed to obtaining this qualification.

About us

Tone Valley PCN consists of five GP Practices: Taunton Vale Healthcare, Warwick House Medical Practice, Lyngford Park Surgery, Creech Medical Centre and North Curry Health Centre, and together our dedicated teams care for around 36,500 patients. We are a friendly, forward-looking PCN who values the work‑life balance we are able to provide allowing us to enjoy the beautiful countryside of Somerset. We are looking for a self-starter who is able to work well as part of a team as well as on their own initiative. The ability to work well under pressure is also an important consideration for any successful candidate. If you are a positive, confident and organised individual who adopts a flexible can‑do attitude to your work coupled with a focus on high quality service then one of these roles within a fast‑paced and continuously developing environment could be just right for you.

Job responsibilities

Hours: Full time - 37.5 hours per week, job share will be considered
Salary: Competitive, depending on experience
Location: To be confirmed

Primary Duties and Areas of Responsibility

• See (where appropriate) patients with single or multiple medical problems where medicine optimisation is required.
• Review the ongoing need for each medicine, a review of monitoring needs and an opportunity to support patients with their medicine taking ensuring they get the best use of their medicines (i.e. medicines optimisation).
• Run own long-term condition clinics where responsible for prescribing as an independent prescriber.
• Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for/implement changes in prescribing and monitoring.
• Work with care home staff to improve safety of medicines ordering and administration.
• Provide patient-facing clinics for those with questions, queries and concerns about their medicines.
• Managing caseload of patients with common/minor/self-limiting ailments while working within a scope of practice and limits of competence.
• Provide a telephone help line for patients with questions, queries and concerns about their medicines.
• Answer relevant medicine-related enquiries from GPs, other practice staff, other healthcare teams (e.g. community pharmacy) and patients with queries about medicines.
• Review the use of medicines most commonly associated with unplanned hospital admissions and readmissions through audit and individual patient reviews.
• To reconcile medicines following discharge from hospitals, intermediate care and into care homes, including identifying and rectifying unexplained changes.
• Ensure that patients are referred to the appropriate healthcare professional for the appropriate level of care within an appropriate period of time.
• Support the repeat prescribing reauthorisation process by reviewing patient requests for repeat prescriptions and reviewing medicines reaching review dates.
• Analyse, interpret and present medicines data to highlight issues and risks to support decision making.
• Provide education and training to primary healthcare team & visiting students on therapeutics and medicines optimisation.
• Work with the general practice team to ensure the practice is compliant with CQC standards where medicines are involved.
• Support public health campaigns and provide specialist knowledge on all public health programmes available to the general public.

Person Specification

Qualifications
Mandatory registration with General Pharmaceutical Council.
Masters degree in pharmacy (MPharm or equivalent).
Specialist knowledge acquired through postgraduate diploma level or equivalent training/experience.
Independent prescriber or working towards/intent of gaining independent prescribing qualification.

Experience
Minimum of 2 years post-qualification experience.
An appreciation of the nature of general practice.
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.
Demonstrate the ability to communicate complex and sensitive information in an understandable form to a variety of audiences (i.e. patients).
Able to work under pressure and to meet deadlines.

This job description is intended to provide an outline of the key tasks and responsibilities only. There may be other duties required of the post-holder commensurate with the position. This description will be open to regular review and may be amended to take into account development within the Practice.