Clinical Pharmacist

The post holder will be an integral part of the general practice team. They will work to optimise medication issues to improve patient care and safety, and support clinical staff in the management of patients.

The post holder will work within their clinical competencies as part of a multi-disciplinary team to provide expertise in clinical medicines management, provide face to face structured medication reviews, manage long term conditions, management of medicines on transfer of care and systems for safer prescribing, manage repeat prescription authorisations and reauthorisation, acute prescription request, while addressing the healthcare needs of our patient population.

As part of their employment, the post holder will have qualifications from an accredited training pathway, including independent prescribing, equipping the Clinical Pharmacist to be able to practise and prescribe safely and effectively in a primary care setting.

A Clinical Pharmacist in a general practice organisation has the following key responsibilities in relation to delivering health services.

1. Be a prescriber and work with and alongside the general practice team

2. 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

3. Undertake clinical structured medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations to the GP on prescribing and monitoring.

4. Proactively manage people with complex polypharmacy, especially the elderly, people in care homes, those with multiple co-morbidities and people with learning disabilities or autism.

5. Provide specialist expertise in the use of medicines whilst helping to address the public health care needs and to help address health inequalities

6. 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

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

8. 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

9. Take a central role in the clinical aspects of shared care protocols, clinical research with medicines, liaison with specialist pharmacists where required.

10. To act as the point of contact for all medicine related matters, establishing positive working relationships

11. To consult patients within defined levels of competence and independently prescribe acute and repeat medication

12. To receive referrals and directed patients from triage services and other clinicians

13. To receive and resolve medicines queries from patients and staff

14. To manage a therapeutic drug monitoring system and the recall of patients taking high risk drugs, i.e., anticoagulants, anticonvulsants and DMARDs etc.

15. To provide pharmaceutical consultations as required, being an integral part of the multidisciplinary team

16. To review medications for newly registered patients

17. To support patients with confidence and compliance with their medication

18. To encourage cost-effective prescribing throughout the Practice

19. To produce and implement a Practice repeat prescribing policy

20. To provide advice and answer medication related queries from patients and staff

21. To organise and oversee the organisations medicines optimisation systems including the repeat prescribing and medication review systems

22. To improve the quality and effectiveness of prescribing through clinical audit and education to improve performance against NICE standards and clinical and prescribing guidance.

23. To develop yourself and the role through participation in clinical supervision, training and service redesign activities

24. To ensure appropriate supervision of safe storage, rotation and disposal of vaccines and drugs. To apply infection-control measures within the practice according to local and national guidelines

25. To review the latest guidance ensuring the organisation conforms to NICE, CQC etc.

26. To provide targeted support and proactive reviews for vulnerable, complex patients and those at risk of admission and re-admission to secondary care

27. To provide proactive leadership on medicines and prescribing systems to the Practice and patient population

28. To support in the delivery of enhanced services and other service requirements on behalf of the Practice

29. Involvement in any necessary learning brought about through clinical incidents and near-miss events

30. To undertake all mandatory training as required

31. To contribute to clinical governance

32. To contribute to public health campaigns (e.g., COVID-19 or flu clinics) through advice or direct care

Alton Street Surgery is well established and has a very good reputation for patient care and accessibility. In 2018 the surgery received a rating of Outstanding from the CQC. The practice provides care to approximately 11,700 patients in Ross-on-Wye and surrounding rural areas.

We have a young and enthusiastic Partnership who are family friendly and who encourage a strong team ethos within the surgery. It is very important to the partners that this is maintained and developed. Learning is important in the organisation, and the partners encourage the development of staff.

The practice has the support of a large clinical team which includes allied health professionals such as ACPs, Clinical Pharmacists and an experienced nursing and HCA team. We have a Patient Services Team who actively manage workflow optimisation, signposting, and pathology delegation, helping to reduce some of the administrative burdens.

We are a training practice (with 3 GP trainers) that also provides medical cover to the local 32 bed community hospital opposite the practice, and an active member of the South and West Herefordshire Primary Care Network.

Qualifications

Essential: - Completion of an undergraduate degree in Pharmacy; - Hold GPhC independent prescribing qualification; - Registration with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society

Desirable: - Post-graduate Diploma in Clinical Pharmacy; - Successful completion of the CPPE Clinical Pharmacist training pathways

Personal Attributes

Skills

Experience

Desirable: - Experience in managing pharmacy services in primary care