Clinical Pharmacist with Independent Prescribing in Walsall

Please note we reserve the right to close the vacancy before the closing date if there are a high number of applicants received.

The post holder is a clinical pharmacist with independent prescribing, supporting and working alongside a team of pharmacists in general practice. In this role they will be supported by a senior clinical pharmacist who will develop, manage and mentor them.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will work as part of a multi-disciplinary team in a patient-facing role. They will 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 will provide primary support to general practice staff with regards to prescription and medication queries. They will help support the repeat prescription system, deal with acute prescription requests, and medicines reconciliation on transfer of care and systems for safer prescribing, providing expertise in clinical medicines advice while addressing both public and social care needs of patients in the GP practice. The post holder will provide clinical leadership on medicines optimisation and quality improvement and manage some aspects of the quality and outcomes framework 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 role is pivotal to improving the quality of care and operational efficiencies so requires motivation and passion to deliver excellent service within general practice.

About us

Primary care is changing; both the way we interact with patients and the local structures. It is an exciting and dynamic time to work within General Practice. In Walsall, networks of local GP practices have formed seven Primary Care Networks (PCNs) to help improve the care offered to the local population and develop new ways of working. Clinical Pharmacy in General Practice is part of an exciting programme of transformation to develop a new model of care which addresses our ambition to deliver person-centred, coordinated care across the district. The Clinical Pharmacy in General Practice model is supported by the direction of national policy including the Five Year Forward View and GP Forward View where there is a need to better utilise the role of pharmacy within primary care to pro-actively help patients stay safe and well and out of hospital, as well as helping to reduce the demands on general practice.

Job responsibilities

• Produce and implement a practice repeat prescribing policy and support colleagues by reducing prescription queries.
• Manage the repeat prescribing reauthorisation process by reviewing patient requests for repeat prescriptions and reviewing medicines reaching review dates and flagging up those needing a review.
• Ensure patients have appropriate monitoring tests in place when required.
• See (where appropriate) patients with single or multiple medical problems where medicine optimisation is required (e.g. COPD, asthma).
• Review the ongoing need for each medicine, a review of monitoring needs and an opportunity to support patients with their medicines taking ensuring they get the best use of their medicines (i.e. medicines optimisation).
• Make appropriate recommendations to Senior Pharmacists or GPs for medicine improvement.
• Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for senior clinical pharmacist, nurses and/or GP on prescribing and monitoring.
• Work with care home staff to improve safety of medicines ordering and administration.
• Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for the senior clinical pharmacists, nurses and GPs on prescribing and monitoring.
• Attend and refer patients to multidisciplinary case conferences.
• Managing caseload of patients with common/minor/self-limiting ailments while working within a scope of practice and limits of competence.
• Signposting to community pharmacy and referring to GPs or other healthcare professionals where appropriate.
• Provide a telephone help line for patients with questions, queries and concerns about their medicines.
• Answer all 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.
• Reconcile medicines following discharge from hospitals, intermediate care and into care homes, including identifying and rectifying unexplained changes and working with patients and community pharmacists to ensure patients receive the medicines they need post discharge.
• Ensure that patients are referred to the appropriate healthcare professional for the appropriate level of care within an appropriate period of time.
• Contribute pharmaceutical advice for the development and implementation of new services that have medicinal components.
• Analyse, interpret and present medicines data to highlight issues and risks to support decision-making.
• Undertake clinical audits of prescribing in areas directed by the GPs, feedback the results and implement changes in conjunction with the practice team.
• Provide education and training to primary healthcare team 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

• Completion of an undergraduate degree in pharmacy and registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council.
• Minimum of 2 years experience as a pharmacist, demonstrated within a practice portfolio.
• Have experience and an awareness of common acute and long-term conditions that are likely to be seen in general practice.
• Recognises priorities when problem-solving and identifies deviations from normal pattern and is able to refer to seniors or GPs when appropriate.
• Able to follow legal, ethical, professional and organisational policies/procedures and codes of conduct.
• Involves patients in decisions about prescribed medicines and supporting adherence as per NICE guidelines.
• GPhC membership required.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such 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.