Specialist Clinical Pharmacist (Mental Health)

Job summary
You will be responsible for providing a clinical pharmacy service to designated mental health inpatient teams and delivering on all aspects of medicines optimisation. You will be the source of expert pharmaceutical advice for the MDT and undertake patient-centered medicines discussions. The succesfull candidate will also be expected to supervise junior staff and contribute to workforce development and staff training alongside leads of the service.

We will be supporting newly qualified pharmacist into the specialty of mental health hospital pharmacy and will be encouraging them to undertake a post graduate certificate. During your progression role you will have the opportunity to rotate through a number of mental specialisms such as CAMHS, Forensics, Older Adults, PICU, General adult and also be able to participate in a rotation with our acute trust provider.

You will also need to have the skills to be able to work effectively within the wider multi-disciplinary team of nurses and doctors and other allied healthcare professionals and managers. You will want to develop and improve the reliability and quality of our clinical pharmacy service and partake in Quality Improvement projects.

It is imperative that the successful candidate is able to show compassion and respect for people with mental health illness and be driven to improve their care through the safe and effective use of medicines.

Main duties of the job
The post holder will be expected to work with the Clinical Lead/Lead Pharmacist to develop clinical pharmacy services within the Luton and Bedford directorate. They will be responsible for implementing and monitoring the Trust's clinical pharmacy standards as well as ensuring the clinical service is of high quality and patient-focused. They will identify gaps and problem areas in the service and will use Quality Improvement methodology to make positive changes. The postholder will be required to work closely with the clinical lead ensuring that stock control of medicines on the wards is accurate and that cost effective measures are taken to improve medicine use across the inpatient wards.

About us
East London Foundation Trust (ELFT), Our dynamic and creative Trust pharmacy team provides pharmacy services to a wide range of community and inpatient service users in Newham, Luton & Bedfordshire, City & Hackney and Tower Hamlets. These include children and young people to adults of working age, older adults, perinatal, learning disabilities, community health services and forensic patients. We provide a broad range of clinical pharmacy services to our inpatient wards and are supported by trained medicines management technicians.

Our mission is to make a positive difference to people's lives by improving the quality of life for all we serve. Our values are: We Care, We Respect, We are Inclusive - so we are looking for people who live and breathe these qualities when supporting service users and carers, and in their relationships with colleagues in the Trust and our partner organisations.

Job responsibilities
Please for further information kindly refer to the job description and person specification attached to this vacancy.

Person Specification
Education/ Qualification/ Training
Essential

• Vocational Masters Degree in Pharmacy
• + pre-registration training
• Member of the General Pharmaceutical Council and/or Royal Pharmaceutical Society

Desirable

• Working towards higher Degree/Diploma in Clinical Pharmacy
• Experience in clinical pharmacy in a mental health setting
• Experience in clinical pharmacy of working with older people
• Post registration training relevant to hospital pharmacy
• Psychiatry qualification (or willing to work towards this)

Experience
Essential

• Demonstrate the ability to appropriately recommend, substantiate and communicate medicine related information to mental health patients, carers and clinical staff
• Previous evaluated experience of mentorship and training skills
• To have undertaken clinical audit
• Training and education

Desirable

• Previous experience in providing clinical mental health services.
• Staff management experience
• Monitoring and advising on drug expenditure

Knowledge and Skills
Essential

• Clinical and critical appraisal skills
• The ability to identify and prioritise clinical work load
• Communicates with medical, nursing and pharmacy staff in clear precise and appropriate manner.
• To have an awareness of national and local priorities
• The ability to identify and manage risks
• Ability to evaluate own work
• Enhances the quality of patient care
• Demonstrates awareness of the clinical governance agenda
• Basic IT skills
• Teaching and presentation skills
• Demonstrates ability to meets set targets
• Demonstrate ability to organise self to ensure efficient use of time.
• Meets expected levels of practice as defined by others
• Self motivated
• The ability and willingness to deputise for senior staff while recognising limitations of experience and ability
• Takes responsibilities for own actions

Desirable

• Able to influence junior medical staff
• Understanding of local trust priorities
• Evidence of writing procedures, guidelines or protocols

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.

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

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

Employer details
Employer name: East London NHS Foundation Trust
Address: Luton Pharmacy Office, Calnwood Court, off calnwood road, Luton, LU4 0LN, United Kingdom
Employer's website:

Employer contact details
For questions about the job, contact: Lead Pharmacist and Trust MSO, Rajesh Jethwa, View email address on meeveem.com, View phone number on meeveem.com