Clinical Pharmacist - Parkside Practice in Reading

Location: Parkside Family Practice, Green Road, Reading. No hybrid working available.

An exciting opportunity for a Clinical Pharmacist has arisen to join our Primary Care Network team. We are looking for an enthusiastic and proactive individual who enjoys challenging and varied work and who will share our vision of providing excellent patient care.

Main duties of the job:

• The successful applicant will have completed their CPPE pathway and be joining an established Pharmacy Team and work closely with the wider clinical team to help deliver safe and high-quality medicines management for our patients.
• As well as having up to date clinical knowledge, preferred candidates will have an understanding of primary care medicines management.
• We are also seeking a commitment to addressing health inequalities and proactively reaching people from all communities.

Job responsibilities:

• Develop and manage a medicines management plan and deliver patient services as determined by Network policy and local and national guidance.
• Maximise cost-effective prescribing and improve the quality of patient care.
• Provide expertise in clinical medicines review and address public health and social needs of patients in GP practices.
• Reduce inappropriate poly-pharmacy and wasteful prescribing through clinical medication review.
• Reconcile medicines following hospital discharge and work with patients and community pharmacists to ensure patients receive the medicines they need post discharge.
• Contribute to reductions in medicine related hospital admissions and readmissions by supporting patients to get the best outcomes from their medicines and identifying and addressing medicines related issues.
• Interface with community and hospital pharmacy colleagues and develop referral processes between primary care professionals including the promotion of the repeat dispensing service.
• Manage the repeat prescribing re-authorisation process by reviewing requests for repeat prescriptions and medicines reaching review dates.
• Manage patients and health care professionals' medicine queries.
• Increase quality and safety of prescribing through mechanisms such as audit and PDSA cycles.
• Manage practice formularies to improve the quality, safety and cost effectiveness of prescribing.
• Support achievement of PQS and QOF targets.
• Implement drug withdrawals and alerts e.g. MHRA aimed at improving medicines safety.
• Work with primary care professionals and patients to implement NICE and other evidence based guidelines.
• Run clinics where medicines are the main interventions.
• Contribute to multi-morbidity reviews and multidisciplinary reviews.
• Provide medicines information and training to Practice healthcare professionals and admin staff.
• Act as a source of medicines information for all of the practice team and patients (e.g. around doses, side effects, adverse events, possible alternatives e.g. around out of stocks).

Core responsibilities:

• Working with the practice based teams to undertake medication reviews particularly in high risk groups.
• Improve prescribing practice through educational support for all prescribers within the practices.
• Lead on where changes in evidence require changes in prescribing across patient population e.g. where a drug is withdrawn or indications change.
• Liaise with colleagues in community pharmacies to align support for medicines adherence such as NMSS.
• Support improvements in clinical care through practice based audits.
• Prescribing advice to prescribers in practice e.g. temporary non availability of drugs.
• Ensure patient safety when you are transferred between care providers through reconciliation of prescribed medicines.

Qualifications:

• Completion of an undergraduate degree in Pharmacy, and registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council.
• Minimum of 2 years post graduate experience in pharmacy, as demonstrated within a practice portfolio.
• Completion of the CPPE pathway.
• Member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS).
• Member of or working towards (through foundation) RPS Faculty membership.
• May hold or be working towards a prescribing qualification.
• May hold or be working towards a postgraduate pharmacy qualification.
• Has an awareness of the breadth of common acute and long term conditions that are likely to be seen in a general medical practice.
• Complete appropriate Continuing Professional Education and Development and remain in good standing with pharmacist registration and regulation bodies.
• Maintain appropriate professional insurance.

Communication:

• The post-holder should recognise the importance of effective communication within the team and will strive to communicate effectively with other team members, patients and carers.
• Confidentiality: You may have access to confidential information relating to patients and their carers, practice staff and other healthcare workers.

Health & safety:

• The post-holder will implement and lead a full range of promotion and management of their own and others health and safety and infection control as defined in the practice Health & Safety policy.

Equality and diversity:

• The post-holder will support the equality, diversity and rights of patients, carers and colleagues.

Quality:

• The post-holder will strive to maintain quality within the practice.

Additional responsibilities:

• Participating in the Dispensing Services Quality Scheme, staff competency recording, development and maintenance of standard operating procedures, and recording and analysis of medication dispensing and prescribing significant events.

Experience:

• Experience of working in primary care.
• Experience of working in a GP practice.

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 to check for any previous criminal convictions.