Clinical Pharmacist (Primary Care)

Working alongside GPs and the wider practice team, you will support the practice team(s) as part of a multidisciplinary, patient-facing role. You will have the backing of the wider pharmacist team across the GP Federation.

Your core duties will include

This is a pivotal role in improving quality of care and operational efficiency, and calls for motivation and passion for delivering excellent general practice care.

The Primary Care Clinical Pharmacist is a clinical practitioner

working as part of the multidisciplinary team to optimise medicines use,

improve patient outcomes and support safe, evidence-based prescribing across

general practice. The role combines direct patient care with medicines

optimisation, chronic disease management and collaborative working across

primary care.

1. Clinical

Patient Care

Long-term

condition clinics

Run long-term

condition clinics for chronic diseases such as atrial fibrillation, asthma,

COPD, chronic kidney disease, diabetes, depression, heart failure, hypertension,

HRT and womens health, reviewing patients with single or multiple medical

problems where medicines optimisation is required.

Make

appropriate recommendations to GPs and other members of the practice team to

optimise medicines use, and implement changes directly where these fall within

the post holder's scope of practice and competence.

Clinical

medication reviews (including Structured Medication Reviews)

Undertake

clinical medication reviews with patients, producing recommendations for

prescribing and monitoring.

Establish the

ongoing need for each medicine, review monitoring needs, and support patients

with their medicines taking to ensure they get the best use of their medicines.

Where indicated,

deliver Structured Medication Reviews (SMRs) in line with the national SMR

specification, prioritising patients on the PCN's target cohorts (e.g. care

home residents, patients with complex polypharmacy, and those on high-risk

medicines).

Independent

prescribing duties (for those who hold

independent prescribing qualification only)

Undertake

independent prescribing consultations face to face, telephone or video for

patients with acute and long-term conditions, taking responsibility for clinical

decision-making, diagnosis and management within their scope of practice.

Initiate,

titrate, adjust and stop medicines within their competence, including for

chronic disease management within their scope of practice.

Order and

interpret relevant diagnostic tests to support clinical decision-making.

Work within a

defined scope of practice, recognising own competency limits, and refer to GPs

or specialists where appropriate.

Medicines

advice and information

Undertake

clinics for those with questions, queries and concerns about their medicines in

the practice, including face to face, telephone and video appointments.

Answer

relevant 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 and arranging

appropriate follow up to patients to monitor the effect of any changes.

Blood Results Management

Review and

provide advice to patients and clinical staff on abnormal blood results, such

as HbA1c, lipids, thyroid function, renal function, and other relevant blood

tests, in line with the post holder's scope of practice and competence.

Recommend and

implement appropriate action or medication changes in response to abnormal

results, escalating to GPs or senior clinicians where required

Shared

decision making

Support

patients to make informed decisions about their medicines through shared

decision making, respecting patient preferences and values in line with NICE

guidance on shared decision making.

Care

home medication reviews

Undertake

medication reviews for care home residents in line with the Network Contract

DES care home requirements, working closely with care home staff, community

pharmacy and, where relevant, the multidisciplinary care home team to manage

complex and high-risk polypharmacy.

Repeat

and acute prescription processing

Support

implementation and ongoing development of repeat prescribing systems and

processes.

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.

Process acute

prescription requests in line with practice protocol.

Management

of minor and common ailments

Where

competent to do so, assess and manage patients presenting with minor or

self-limiting ailments, signposting or referring appropriately, to help release

GP appointment capacity for patients with more complex needs.

Digital

tools, documentation and safety-netting

Use practice

clinical systems and associated digital tools (e.g. SystmOne, Ardens, AccuRx)

and other approved digital tools to record accurate and timely clinical

documentation, ensure appropriate safety-netting and follow-up plans are in

place, and triage to identify opportunities for proactive medicines

optimisation.

Medicines

Safety

Unplanned

hospital admissions

Review 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.

Medicines

reconciliation

Reconcile

medicines following discharge from hospitals, intermediate care and care homes,

identifying and rectifying unexplained changes.

Work 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).

Monitoring

of high-risk medicines

Undertake and

maintain oversight of monitoring for high-risk medicines such as DMARDs,

lithium and anticoagulants, ensuring patients have appropriate blood tests and

clinical reviews in place at the required intervals, and taking action where

monitoring is overdue or results indicate a need for dose adjustment, referral,

or discontinuation.

Medicines

alerts

Action MHRA

drug alerts, product recalls, and other local and national safety alerts,

implementing changes as required.

Antimicrobial

stewardship

Support the

practice team in promoting appropriate antimicrobial prescribing in line with

local and national antimicrobial guidance, contributing to audit and feedback

on antimicrobial stewardship indicators.

2.

Service Delivery and Improvement

Information

management

Analyse,

interpret and present medicines data to highlight issues and risks to support

decision making.

Risk

stratification and proactive case-finding

Use searches

and risk stratification tools to proactively identify patients at risk of

medicines-related harm (e.g. those on high-risk drug combinations or missing

monitoring), and prioritise outreach and review accordingly.

Medicines

quality improvement

Undertake

clinical audits of prescribing in areas directed by GPs, practice managers or

ICB.

Feedback the results and implement changes in

conjunction with the practice team.

Implementation

of local guidelines and formulary recommendations

Analyse

practice prescribing against local ICB criteria (e.g. prescribing dashboards,

high cost drugs, and specials) and engage with members of the practice team

where prescribing patterns do not align with local ICB policies, guidance, and

prescribing standards.

Support

cost-effective and evidence-based prescribing in line with ICB formulary

guidance and local prescribing policies.

Liaise with

hospital colleagues where prescribing needs to be returned to specialists (red

drugs) or subject to shared care (amber drugs).

London Medical Associates (West London GP Federation) is a federation of GP practices and Primary Care Networks (PCNs) serving communities across Kensington and Chelsea. We deliver high quality primary care services, with the needs of local residents at the heart of everything we do.

The West London GP Federation comprises five PCNs across West London:

You'll be joining one of London's largest and most established ARRS Clinical Pharmacist teams, backed by dedicated clinical leads and a genuine commitment to helping you reach your full professional potential. We invest in ongoing training and CPD to support your development at every stage of your career.

to network with peers and attend in-person pharmacy educational meetings and

events

Experience

Qualifications