Lead Pharmacist Antimicrobial Management in Wigan

Help shape the future of antimicrobial stewardship at Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust. A newly created Principal Pharmacist, Antimicrobial Stewardship role leading initiatives to optimise antimicrobial prescribing and tackle antimicrobial resistance. The role will support the expansion of our antimicrobial stewardship programme, strengthening our approach to the safe, effective and sustainable use of antimicrobials across the organisation. The postholder will help shape antimicrobial stewardship activity within the Trust while contributing to collaborative work across Greater Manchester networks. Working closely with pharmacy, microbiology, infection prevention and clinical teams, you will lead stewardship initiatives, influence prescribing practice and support quality improvement to optimise antimicrobial use and patient outcomes.

What makes this role different?

• Opportunity to influence antimicrobial prescribing and support safer use of medicines.
• Collaboration with antimicrobial stewardship partners across Greater Manchester.
• Opportunities to contribute to service development and stewardship leadership.
• Support the Trust’s response to antimicrobial resistance and help optimise antimicrobial use across the organisation.

We are looking for a pharmacist with strong clinical expertise, leadership skills and a passion for improving medicines use. Informal enquiries are welcomed from candidates interested in learning more about this role.

Main duties of the job

• The postholder will provide highly specialist clinical leadership for antimicrobial stewardship, support organisational compliance with national antimicrobial policies and targets, and contribute to the development of antimicrobial stewardship strategy within the Trust and across local healthcare partners.
• The role will support delivery of national priorities relating to antimicrobial resistance and stewardship, including relevant UK antimicrobial resistance strategies and NHS England antimicrobial stewardship programmes.
• The role includes responsibility for antimicrobial governance, clinical leadership of Antimicrobial Stewardship initiatives, development of antimicrobial prescribing policy, and education of healthcare professionals.
• The postholder will ensure that Antimicrobial Stewardship services contribute to the delivery of pharmaceutical care that is safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led in line with Trust and regulatory expectations.
• This post forms part of a structured development pathway for advanced Antimicrobial Stewardship leadership.

Working for our organisation

Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust are the proud providers of acute hospital and community services to the people of the Wigan Borough and surrounding areas. At WWL, we value our staff believing that ‘happy staff, makes for happy patients’. We have a recognised track record in staff engagement and living our values.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• To lead the operational delivery of the Trust Antimicrobial Stewardship programme and ensure that it develops in line with local, regional, and national directives.
• Develop and implement the Trust Antimicrobial Stewardship Strategy and operational delivery plan.
• Working in partnership with other professionals and partners, to lead quality improvement initiatives to optimise antimicrobial prescribing and reduce antimicrobial-related harm throughout the Trust by identifying and implementing new systems of work.
• Thematically review antimicrobial prescribing data, incident reports, and resistance trends in line with existing and proposed Antimicrobial Stewardship practices, to identify opportunities for improvement and support safer antimicrobial prescribing across the organisation.
• Report findings / recommendations for change to manager, governance team & Trust executives.
• Lead and develop a multi-disciplinary forum which focuses on Anti-Microbial Stewardship.
• Deal with complaints and patient / staff / management concerns in relation to Anti-Microbial Stewardship.
• To liaise with those directly affected by such events & produce appropriate feedback.
• To refer such issues to relevant line manager once identified.
• Develop and disseminate Antimicrobial Stewardship guidance, alerts and educational material across the Trust.
• To clinically supervise and manage an assigned team ensuring the provision of quality driven pharmaceutical care in a manner which is safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led.
• To be the lead within a clinical area for organising and managing all aspects of post-registration pharmacist training and assessment in order to ensure that standards set down by the GPhC, CQC, the Trust and the Pharmacy department are met.
• Provide and lead a highly specialist Clinical Pharmacy service to a defined area in accordance with relevant procedures and Medicines Management standards.
• Provide highly specialised evidence-based clinical advice and information (doses, interaction, adverse effects, drug availability, complex dose calculations) to nursing and medical staff (within the Trust and externally) on the management of individual patients.
• Develop and monitor appropriate Antimicrobial Stewardship and clinical metrics (KPIs) to assess and improve the quality services, actively monitor these and in conjunction with the Associate Directors of Pharmacy ensure action is taken to address any areas of concern.
• To ensure that assigned pharmacists have sufficient skills, knowledge, and competence to meet the professional and service standards required by patients and service customers.
• Develop, co-ordinate and implement a continuous personal and professional development strategy for pharmacists in line with the Trust appraisal policy and GPhC expectations.
• To ensure that all aspects of pre-registration training and competence assessment meet the standards required by the GPhC.
• To be an active member of the Pharmacy Quality and Safety Group and Medicine Management Strategy Group.
• To work with other healthcare partners to ensure that care is delivered in the most appropriate setting for patients.

Person specification

Qualifications

• Master’s Degree in Pharmacy plus successful completion of pre-registration training year (or earlier equivalent).
• Registered with GPhC as Pharmacist.
• Diploma/MSc in Clinical Pharmacy or equivalent.
• Evidence of CPD in line with GPhC requirements.
• Postgraduate training or recognised qualification in antimicrobial stewardship or infection control / management.

Experience

• Experience contributing to antimicrobial stewardship initiatives or antimicrobial prescribing improvement programmes.
• Experience analysing prescribing data, audit results, or quality indicators to support service improvement.
• Experience leading or contributing to quality improvement or service development projects.
• Experience developing clinical guidelines or antimicrobial policies.
• Experience of work at Highly Specialist 8a clinical role.
• Experience of staff management.
• Experience of staff development and training.
• Experience of developing SOP’s.
• Experience of managing change.
• Evidence of Continuing Professional Development (CPD).
• Evidence of research or audit.
• Experience of computer systems and reporting tools.
• Understanding of Key NHS and Medicines Management issues.
• Experience of acting up to 8B grade.
• Experience undertaking or contributing to incident investigations at departmental level.
• Experience of working with Electronic prescribing solutions.
• Experience of Trust Governance / Assurance Committee or equivalent.

Skills

• Ability to influence prescribing practice and support multidisciplinary decision making.
• Ability to demonstrate professional judgement.
• Excellent Interpersonal skills.
• Ability to work under pressure.
• Excellent Organisational skills.
• Ability to deal with highly complex information and develop appropriate planning, assurance & finance management reports.
• Leadership and team management skills.
• Ability to manage projects.
• Ability to delegate tasks.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Ability to teach and develop staff.
• Able to handle complaints & conflict with diplomacy.

Knowledge

• Knowledge of antimicrobial stewardship principles and national antimicrobial resistance strategies.
• Excellent Clinical Pharmacy knowledge.
• Knowledge of national, regional, or local modernisation plans in relation to pharmacy.
• Knowledge of Trust targets, strategies, and values.
• Knowledge of medicines optimisation.
• Knowledge of Regulations in relation to Medicines Acts or other regulatory documents.
• Knowledge of trust policies and procedures.
• Knowledge of Clinical Governance.

Additional

• Good time management.
• Evidence of ongoing Continuing Professional Development & learning.
• Enthusiasm for the post & for pharmacy.
• Professional credibility with all levels of staff.
• May be required to lift heavy objects from time to time.
• Speak English to an appropriate standard relevant to their role, i.e. with confidence and accuracy, using correct sentence structures and vocabulary, and without hesitation.