Clinical Pharmacist

Job responsibilities

JOB SUMMARY

Responsible for supporting the partners in implementing effective medicine management within the practices, identifying areas for improvement, and initiating and managing change

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES

Manage a medicines management plan and deliver patient services as determined by practice policy as well as local and national guidance.

Lead the prescribing teams in best prescribing practice for long term condition management with a view to improving the quality of patient care with cost effective solutions.

Main patient / clinical duties

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;

be a prescriber, or completing training to become prescribers, and work with and alongside the general practice team;

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 practice and to help in tackling inequalities;

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;

through structured medication reviews, support patients to take their medications to get the best from them, reduce waste and promote self-care;

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;

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), liaison with community pharmacists and anticoagulation; and

be part of a professional clinical network and have access to appropriate clinical supervision.

Provide structured education in a group setting for patients with certain chronic diseases.

Assist partners with the appropriate monitoring and management of their prescribing budgets.

Help plan, develop and support the introduction of new working processes within the practice to optimise the quality of prescribing.

Manage daily prescription queries

Process drug amendments from secondary care

Any other tasks as reasonably requested by the practice manager or partnership.

Responsibility for administration

To provide regular support and feedback to the practice on prescribing action plans

To update and maintain accurate patient medication records on the practices clinical computer systems, including advice given and action taken.

To advise the primary health care team on the safe and secure handling of controlled drugs and other medicines, ensuring compliance with medicines legislation.

Confidentiality: In the course of seeking treatment, patients entrust us with, or allow us to gather, sensitive information in relation to their health and other matters. They do so in confidence and have the right to expect that staff will respect their privacy and act appropriately

In the performance of the duties outlined in this job description, the post-holder may have access to confidential information relating to patients and their carers, practice staff and other healthcare workers. They may also have access to information relating to the practice as a business organisation. All such information from any source is to be regarded as strictly confidential

Information relating to patients, carers, colleagues, other healthcare workers or the business of the practice may only be divulged to authorised persons in accordance with the practice policies and procedures relating to confidentiality and the protection of personal and sensitive data

Health & Safety: The post-holder will implement and lead on a full range of promotion and management their own and others health and safety and infection control as defined in the practice Health & Safety policy, the practice Health & Safety manual, and the practice Infection Control policy and published procedures. This will include (but will not be limited to):

Using personal security systems within the workplace according to practice guidelines

Awareness of national standards of infection control and cleanliness and regulatory / contractual / professional requirements, and good practice guidelines

Correct use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

Use and monitoring of the correct use of Standard Operating Procedures for cleaning and infection control

Responsible for correct hand hygiene of self and others

Ownership of infection control and clinically based patient care protocols, and implementation of those protocols within the team

Active observation of current working practices across the team in relation to infection control, cleanliness and related activities, ensuring that procedures are followed and weaknesses / training needs are identified, escalating issues as appropriate

Identifying the risks involved in work activities and undertaking such activities in a way that manages those risks across clinical and patient process

Making effective use of training to update knowledge and skills, and initiate and manage the training of others across the full range of infection control and patient processes

Monitoring practice facilities and equipment in relation to infection control, ensuring that provision of hand-cleansing facilities, wipes etc. are sufficient to ensure a good clinical working environment. Lack of facilities to be escalated as appropriate.

Safe management of sharps procedures, including training, use, storage and disposal

Using appropriate infection control procedures, maintaining work areas in a tidy, clean and ...