Clinical Pharmacist

Job summary
Highcroft Surgery is a well established GP Practice serving 12,000 patients in the heart of Arnold.

Join our Practice and become part of a friendly, supportive and forward thinking team committed to delivering high-quality, patient-centred care. We offer a collaborative working environment, manageable workloads, and strong multidisciplinary support. With involvement in service improvement and strong team work, this is an excellent role for a Clinical Pharmacist seeking job satisfaction, balance, and a welcoming Practice culture.

Main duties of the job

• Structured Medication Reviews - Carry out face to face and telephone call reviews for patients with complex needs or those taking multiple medication
• Long-Term Condition Management - Monitor, manage and adjust treatments for chronic illnesses
• Acute and Repeat Prescriptions - Handle medication requests, reauthorise repeat prescriptions and address acute queries
• Safety and Medicines Optimisation - Reconcile medications for patients recently discharged from the hospital to prevent discrepancies, identify high-risk medications (such as monitoring blood tests for specific drugs) and implement strategies to reduce adverse effects and counsel patients on how to use their medicines safely and effectively to reduce wastage
• Practice Support and Governance - Act as the primary expert contact for medicine-related questions from Doctors, Nurses, patients, and local pharmacies and help the Practice meet quality targets like the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) and optimise local prescribing costs

About us
Our organisation is supported by a dedicated team of 30 staff members, including 2 GP Partners, 4 Salaried GPs, 1 Nurse Partner, 3 Nurses, 1 Nurse Associate, 2 Health Care Assistants, 1 Practice Manager, 1 Operations Manager, alongside teams including Pharmacy, Reception and Administration. We also have a number of ARRS staff supporting the Practice.

We all work together to deliver high-quality, patient-centred care. We pride ourselves on a warm, welcoming atmosphere where people feel valued, supported and respected. The work ethic is collaborative and professional, with a strong emphasis on teamwork, mutual support and continuous improvement.

Working here offers the benefits of a positive workplace culture, open communication, and opportunities for learning and development. Staff are encouraged to contribute ideas and take pride in their work, creating an environment where both employees and patients can thrive.

We use clinical systems including SystmOne, Ardens and eConsult.

Job responsibilities

• To work as the Clinical Pharmacist working on Practice needs and helping to develop the current Pharmacist Team, and to further develop and maximise patient health while reducing the workload of GPs
• To act within their professional boundaries, supporting and working alongside Pharmacy Technician(s) in General Practice to develop, manage and mentor them
• The post holder will work as part of a multi-disciplinary team in a patient-facing role. The post holder will take responsibility for areas of chronic disease management within the Practice and undertake clinical medication reviews, including structured medication reviews (SMR), monitor electronic repeat dispensing (eRD) prescribing, evaluate prescribing in line with local and national guidelines, review emerging evidence/research and liaise with community pharmacy representatives 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 prescriptions 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 (QOF) and enhanced services, including the Investment and Impact Fund (IIF)
• 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, which may involve optimising the use of digital technologies. 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
• The post holder will already be a non-medical prescriber but will be supported to develop their scope of practice in line with the needs of the Practice but also their own training needs analysis discussed with their Line Manager
• See (where appropriate) patients with single or multiple medical problems where medicine optimisation is required (e.g. chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (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 GPs/other clinical colleagues or prescribe autonomously where appropriate for medicine improvement
• Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients and make appropriate recommendations to GPs/other clinical colleagues or prescribe autonomously where appropriate for medicine improvement
• Lead on the development of the SMR plan working collaboratively with the Clinical Pharmacists, key PCN colleagues such as Care Home Matrons and the ICB Medicines Management Team. Lead on collating progress reports from each Practice to feedback to the PCN and Practices
• Managing caseload for 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/other clinical colleagues where appropriate. Working with colleagues (including community pharmacies) to promote the use of the Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS)
• Provide patient facing clinics for those with questions, queries and concerns about their medicines in the Practice
• Answer all medicine-related enquiries from GPs, other Practice staff, other Healthcare Teams (e.g. community pharmacy) and patients with queries about medicines. Suggesting and recommending solutions. Providing follow-up for patients to monitor the effect of any changes
• Lead on coordinating (where appropriate) and contribute at Practice level to review of the use of medicines most commonly associated with unplanned hospital admissions and readmissions through audit and individual patient reviews. Put in place changes to reduce the prescribing of these medicines to high-risk patient groups
• To 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. Set up and manage systems to ensure continuity of medicines supply to high-risk groups of patients (e.g. those with medicine compliance aids or those in care homes)
• Ensure that patients are referred to the appropriate Healthcare Professional for the appropriate level of care within an appropriate period of time e.g. pathology results, common/minor ailments, acute conditions, long term condition reviews etc.
• Produce and implement a Practice repeat prescribing policy. 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. Ensure, where appropriate, that electronic repeat dispensing (eRD) systems are used and policies are in place
• Identification of cohorts of patients at high risk of harm from medicines through pre--prepared Practice computer searches. This might include risks that are patient related, medicine related, or both. These patients will be prioritised for a SMR as per the practices local implementation of the plan
• Contribute pharmaceutical advice for the development and implementation of new services that have medicinal components (e.g. advice on treatment pathways and patient information leaflets). Also contribute to further development of and recruitment to the Clinical Pharmacy team
• Analyse, interpret and present medicines data to highlight issues and risks to support decision making
• Lead on coordinating (where appropriate) and contribute at Practice level to the undertaking of simple audits of prescribing in areas directed by the GPs, feedback the results and implement changes in conjunction with the Practice team
• Implement changes to medicines that result from MHRA alerts, product withdrawal and other local and national guidance
• Monitor Practice prescribing against the local health economys red/amber/green (RAG) list and make recommendations to GPs/other clinical colleagues for medicines that should be prescribed by hospital doctors (red drugs) or subject to shared care or specialist recommendation/initiation (amber 1 and 2 drugs). Assist the Practice in seeing and maintaining a Practice formulary that is hosted on the Practices computer system. Auditing Practices compliance against National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) technology assessment guidance. Provide newsletters or bulletins on important prescribing messages
• Provide education and training to primary healthcare team on therapeutics and medicines optimisation. Support the continuing professional development of pharmacy colleagues, professionals in training and foster an environment of learning for trainees or students who may be hosted by the Practice. Show willingness to support NHS research (e.g. through the completion of NIHR Good Clinical Practice e-learning)
• Work with the General Practice team to ensure the Practice is compliant with care quality commission (CQC) standards where medicines are involved
• To support public health campaigns. To provide specialist knowledge on all public health programmes available to the general public. To advise on social media campaigns (such as posts to Facebook or websites) to improve population health in regards to prescribing or medication

Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential

• Bachelor or Masters degree in pharmacy (BPharm/MPharm)
• Minimum of 3 years experience as a Pharmacist, demonstrated within a practice portfolio
• Mandatory registration with General Pharmaceutical Council
• Minimum of 3 years post-qualification experience working in General Practice
• Non-Medical Prescriber
• In depth therapeutic and clinical knowledge and understanding of the principles of evidence-based healthcare
• 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 (e.g. patients)
• Good IT skills
• Able to obtain and analyse

Desirable

• Specialist knowledge acquired through post-graduate diploma level or equivalent training/experience
• Good Clinical Practice certificate
• Membership of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society or working towards Faculty membership of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society
• Previous experience of clinical mentorship and/or line management of other pharmacists, pre-registration pharmacists and pharmacy technicians
• Is able to plan, manage, monitor, advise and review general medicine optimisation issues in core areas for long term conditions
• Excellent oral and written communication skills with people from a variety of backgrounds
• Good presentation skills and ability to work effectively with individuals and groups
• Advanced clinical reasoning skills
• Good motivational skills
• Ability to present complex information in a clear and logical manner
• Excellent listening skills
• Good organisational skills to manage and prioritise a caseload
• Experience in using a Primary Care IT system, e.g. SystmOne
• Proficient in the use of web-based applications or programmes

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.

UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

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