Clinical Pharmacist
Job Description
Job summary
We are looking for a full time pharmacist to join our PCN and to become part of our multi-disciplinary team in both a patient facing and administrative role. They will have support from GPs and a senior PCN clinical pharmacist or lead GP. 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.
Over the next few years, the number of roles is expanding significantlyand we are currently recruiting to add on to our current pharmacist with more pharmacists and also with several Physio First practitioners. We are planning on expanding our current team further in the coming years.
Additional training will be supplied via Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education (CPPE) unless already undertaking or qualified from an approved training pathway e.g. Primary Care Pharmacy Educational Pathway or Medicines Optimisation.
PCNs have been formed to allow general practice to take a lead in delivering patient centred care. This allows a group of local practices to work together to determine what their community needs to improve its health and social care. Pharmacy is an important part of this plan to ensure all patients have access to medicines experts to help keep them safe and well, reducing the demands on general practice and hospitals.
Main duties of the job
Manage clinics for long term disease management within scope of practice e.g. hypertension, diabetes or asthma etc. Be responsible for the care management of patients with chronic diseases and undertake clinical medication reviews to proactively manage people with complex polypharmacy, especially the elderly, people in care homes, those with multiple co-morbidities (in particular frailty, COPD and asthma) and people with learning disabilities or autism (through STOMP Stop Over Medication Programme)
Provide specialist expertise in the use of medicines whilst helping to address both the public health and social care needs of patients at the PCNs practice(s) and to help in tackling inequalities
Work with the PCN pharmacy technicians and practices to improve repeat prescribing policies.
For this position Procare Health Limited are the host employer. The successful applicant will be employed by Procare Health Ltd and seconded to the Primary Care Network for the duration of their contract. Applicants primary work-base will be as above, however, applicants will be expected to work across all PCN Practices. Employees of Procare Health Ltd are eligible to join the NHS Pension Scheme.
About us
Procare Health
Procare Health is the GP Federation for Guildford & Waverley. Our aim is to support General Practice to work at scale in order to achieve efficiencies of scale whilst respecting the autonomy of individual General Practices. This includes working with other local healthcare providers to develop and provide health services to the benefit of our patients.
We help member practices to work together to jointly address issues which are difficult to resolve individually and offer extra expertise and skills. By working at scale, we can ensure the projects we take forward on behalf of our members will allow patients in our area to have more consistency in, as well as choices about, their care.
Procare provide community and district nurses in our area supporting better integration of Primary and Community services. Our ICP area is served by Royal Surrey County Hospital and is located in the Surrey Heartlands ICS area which is one of the original 10 ICS areas in the UK and one of two that has combined Health and Social Care organisations.
Guildford East Primary Care Network
We are a group of 6 excellent, well run and committed practices that span the rural and central areas around Guildford, covering over 50,000 patients. We meet together monthly as practice leads and practice managers to discuss development and plans. Our aim is to provide practices with additional staff that can support practices and provide better care for our patients.
Job responsibilities
Patient facing clinics
Through structured medication reviews, support patients to take their medications to get the best from them, reduce waste and promote self-care; including those within a care home setting.
Communicate to a prescriber any recommendations for changes identified in the reviews to ensure patients get the best use of their medicines. Or as an independent prescriber, be responsible for adjusting medications and arranging monitoring when needed.
Risk stratification
Identify cohorts of patients at high risk of harm from medicines through practice computer searches
Medicines safety
Undertake clinical audits of prescribing in areas directed by the practice, making suggestions for improvement.
Work with the PCN pharmacy technicians and practices to identify patients affected by appropriate MHRA drug alerts.
Communicate to a prescriber any recommendations for changes identified in audits/drug alerts. Or as an independent prescriber, be responsible for adjusting medications and arranging monitoring when needed.
Take a central role in the clinical aspects of shared care protocols, clinical research with medicines, liaison with specialist pharmacists (including mental health and reduction of inappropriate antipsychotic use in people with learning difficulties).
Medicines optimisation
Provide leadership on person-centred medicines optimisation (including ensuring prescribers in the practice conserve antibiotics in line with local antimicrobial stewardship guidance) and quality improvement, whilst contributing to the quality and outcomes framework and enhanced services.
Provide support to the practice to ensure medicines reconciliation from clinical letters e.g. hospital discharges and out-patient clinic letters are completed accurately and in a timely manner.
Report back to ICB/secondary care pharmacy teams queries around requests for inappropriate shared care prescribing requests or non-formulary items.
Work with PCN practice to action ICB medicines management incentive schemes under the advice of a prescriber (unless already one).
Supporting the implementation of national prescribing policies and guidance within GP practices
Work to improve Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) either though reviewing clinical coding to improve disease registers or individual indicators, flag to prescribers (if not already one) appropriate medications to initiate or arranging appropriate monitoring.
Work with practices to help with Care Quality Commission (CQC) requirements around medication related issues.
Work with the practice and ICB to reduce the number of items prescribed that appear on the national list of items that should not routinely be prescribed in primary care either directly if the medication can be purchased over the counter or as an independent prescriber by initiating alternatives or to appropriately refer patients to a prescriber.
Working within a multidisciplinary team
Work as part of a multi-disciplinary team in a patient facing role to clinically assess and treat patients using their expert knowledge of medicines for specific disease areas.
Have a leadership role in supporting further integration of general practice with the wider healthcare teams (including community and hospital pharmacy) to help improve patient outcomes, ensure better access to healthcare and help manage general practice workload.
Develop relationships and work closely with other pharmacy professionals across PCNs and the wider health and social care system, including those in primary care, secondary care, community pharmacy, mental and social care teams.
Be part of a professional clinical network and have access to appropriate clinical supervision with the support of the PCN.
Act as a mentor to PCN pharmacy technicians.
Person Specification
Other
Essential
- Meets DBS reference standards
- Able to work across several sites and travel to meet with stakeholders
Desirable
- Hold a current driving license
Skills & Competencies
Essential
- Excellent interpersonal, influencing and negotiating skills, including written and verbal communication skills
- Gain acceptance for recommendations and influence/motivate/ persuade the audience to comply with the recommendations/ agreed course of action where there may be significant barriers
- Demonstrate the ability to communicate complex and sensitive information in an understandable form to a variety of audiences (e.g. patients)
- Has attention to detail, able to work accurately, identifying errors quickly and easily
- Able to obtain and analyse complex technical information
- Demonstrates accountability for delivering professional expertise and direct service provision
- Is able to plan, manage, monitor, advise and review general medicine optimisation ...
