Lead Pharmacist - Cancer Services (Oncology)
Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust
Redditch, B987UB · Worcester, WR5 1DDView on map(opens Google Maps in a new tab)
Salary
£57,528 to £64,750
Contract
Permanent
Hours
Not specified
Closing date
31 October 2026
8 days leftJob description
Act as Specialist Pharmacist Lead for Oncology Services, providing professional leadership and acting as the key pharmacy contact for service developm...
- Provide a specialist clinical pharmacy and medicines management service to Haematology and Oncology patients, including pharmaceutical risk management within ward-based settings.
- Ensure compliance with medicines legislation, Trust Medicines Policy and relevant national and local guidance.
- Contribute to the development and implementation of Cancer Services SOPs and policies, ensuring medicines management systems are safe, robust, evidence-based and quality assured.
- Review and optimise prescribing in accordance with evidence-based practice, national and regional guidance, and clinical governance requirements, including during consultant ward rounds and multidisciplinary team meetings.
- Assess individual pharmaceutical care needs, identify actual and potential medicines-related problems and recommend appropriate treatment interventions.
- Provide evidence-based pharmaceutical advice and recommendations to medical and nursing staff, clearly communicating and supporting any required actions.
Act as
the specialist pharmacist lead for oncology services, serving as the primary
point of contact for oncology-related service developments and providing
professional leadership for the service, with support from the Principal
Provide a clinical pharmacy service
to the Oncology and Haematology working alongside the cancer services team
delivering and extensive medicines management service to patients in ward
and day unit areas.
Clinically screening SACT for
adult, paediatric patient for day unit, outpatient
teaching and supervision of less experienced pharmacists, technicians, and
students providing Cancer for haematology and oncology patients.
Line managing pharmacists as
allocated including managing sickness, appraisals, general support and
development
To ensure that all staff are
appropriately trained, ensuring compliance to all legal and best practice
standards and local SOP's.
Provide the clinical professional
check on prescriptions dispensed within the dispensary, ensuring that the
Trust high cost drug procedure and Trust Formulary is adhered t
Lead, develop, evaluate and deliver pharmaceutical
care to patients managed by the Haematology and Oncology within the Trust.
specialist knowledge to advise consultants, medical, nursing and pharmacy staff
on all pharmaceutical aspects of care in these areas
Recommend,
substantiate and communicate best therapeutic options for patients routinely
and via attendance at MDT to implement changes in prescribing practice to
ensure evidence-based medicine is followed as appropriate and following
commissioning avenue
I Introduce measures to keep the directorate drug
expenditure within agreed budgets including pro-active involvement at
directorate board level to achieve this.
The
post holder will
Provide
a specialist clinical pharmacy and medicines management service to patients and
undertake pharmaceutical risk management for haematology and oncology patient
in a ward-based setting.
Ensure
compliance with medicines legislation, the Trust Medicines Policy, and
medicines related national and local guidelines.
to the development and implementation of appropriate cancer services SOPs and
associated policies to ensure that the haematology/oncology medicines
management systems are safe, robust, guided by national directives, standards,
guidelines, and the post-holders own specialist knowledge, and are quality
assured.
prescribing practices and amend according to evidence-based practice,
national/regional directives and clinical governance targets on a daily basis,
during consultant ward-rounds, and at multidisciplinary team meetings
Including
Analysing patients individual
pharmaceutical care needs
Identifying actual and potential
iatrogenic admissions for medical staff
Recommending best treatment
Substantiate
pharmaceutical recommendations and advice to medical and nursing staff and
communicate effectively any necessary actions to medical and nursing staff.
pharmaceutical care plans for patients, assess and monitor clinical progress
and outcome with regard to their medication and actively intervene to ensure
that patients receive optimal care with minimal side effects.
Provide
specialist advice to healthcare professionals on all pharmaceutical issues
arising within the post holders specialist clinical area.
Be
responsible for the therapeutic blood monitoring of identified drugs within the
Initial patient assessment and
initiation of appropriate loading or starting doses
Interpretation of blood level results
and subsequent adjustment of the patients dose of medicine and amendment of
the patients prescription in order to optimise the beneficial results of
therapy whilst minimising any potential toxicity.
individual patients entered into clinical trials are treated according to the
trial protocol, that their medicines are prepared as specified in the protocol,
that any randomisation codes are allocate appropriately, and that all records
are maintained correctly and stored suitably.
Substantiating clinical pharmacy
recommendations at the highest level and against challenge from Consultants,
where necessary, and effectively communicate any required actions to other
medical and nursing staff.
Providing specialist clinical advice to
other health care professionals on all pharmaceutical issues arising within the
specialist area of cancer services. This will include the extrapolation of
clinical and complex medicines information where data may be lacking and
analysing, interpreting and comparing differing opinion or facts to determine
the best prescribing strategy for an individual patient or patient group.
Assisting with the delivery of the WAHT
pharmacy cancer services to achieve Trust and departmental medicines management
targets including
Managing
the accurate and timely dispensing and supply of medicines to cancer patients.
to NHS England standard operating procedures in relation to drugs supply
through the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) and other commissioning arrangements.
to the Trust Formulary, unlicensed medicines policy and high-cost drug
procedures.
with the creation of clinical guidelines relating to all areas of medicines use
within the cancer services.
in the delivery of key pharmacy modernisation initiatives within cancer
services and assisting in the assessment of the impact of such service
development initiatives on medical and nursing staff within the post-holders
area and the WAHT pharmacy department as a whole.
History Taking, Provision of Patient Information and Counselling
Ensure that information and patient counselling
systems are implemented within their specialist area according to patient need
to ensure that patients obtain the most benefit from their medicines.
Set standards and manage the counselling of
patients on their medicines within the Haematology directorate to improve
concordance and knowledge of their therapy
Ensure all newly admitted patients are interviewed
to construct an accurate medication history and assess compliance/concordance
issues.
Review the medication history against the admission
details and prescription chart
Pro-actively identify to medical staff any
potential or actual medicines-related hospital admissions or associated issues
and outline any required action to resolve identified discrepancies
Assess patients discharge medicines information
requirements as early as possible in the admission stay to be able to prepare
information on medicines for patients based on individual need.
patients information requirements and suitability for delegation of
counselling to a junior pharmacist or lead medicines management technician.
Counsel patients with highly complex needs such
as a physical disability which may affect information requirements (sight or
hearing), language difficulties, those with life-threatening or terminal
diagnoses and highly distressed patients.
Manage pharmacists as allocated including delivery
of PDR and management of sickness based around trust policies.
Undertake the day to day supervision of
pharmacists, technicians, assistants and students
Develop and maintain good internal communications
within the department.
Ensure that the capability, conduct and performance
of every member of staff within their responsibility are continually assessed
and appropriate action is taken to address shortfalls and resolve issues
Ensure that all Trust policies are complied with,
brought to the attention if all staff and are readily and easily accessible
Planning of day to day work, annual objectives and
negotiation of personal development plans and in-year performance management.
Use the Pharmacy Computer System and MS Word,
Excel, Access, and Powerpoint to produce reports, SOPs, analyses and training
materials for others to support the delivery of the post holders key roles and
Produce monthly reports, analyse prescribing trends
and provide guidance and advice on drug expenditure, prescribing patterns and
high cost drug use for the Haematology and oncology specialities at WRH.
Advise and guide Consultants on proposed new
medicines for use within the post-holders clinical area and assist with
compiling new product assessments and evidence-based reviews for submission to
the Area Prescribing Committee for formulary and funding approval
Identify cost containment programmes and introduce
appropriate measures to keep the Haematology and Oncology Directorates drug
expenditure within agreed budgets. Discuss and influence drug expenditure and
its management with key medical staff, directorate managers and Modern Matrons
within the post-holders specialist area.
Service Development and Business Planning
Develop formal links with the Clinical Director,
Business Manager, Modern Matron and Ward managers in relation to the
pharmaceutical needs.
Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust is a large
acute and specialised hospital trust that provides a range of local acute
services to the residents of Worcestershire and more specialised services to a
larger population in Herefordshire and beyond.
The Trust operates hospital-based services from
three sites in Kidderminster, Redditch and Worcester
Our workforce is more than 7,000 strong, and our
caring staff are recognised as providing good and outstanding patient-centred
care. You could be one of them.
We are committed to recruiting the best people to
work with us. Our values, which we ask all staff to demonstrate, underpin our
everyday work and remain firmly at the heart of all we do.
Being open and honest
Ensuring people feel cared for
Showing respect to everyone
We are committed to developing a culture of continuous improvement by embedding the principles of our Improvement System.
We are proud to have achieved Timewise
accreditation - this means we are committed to embedding flexible working
within our organisation as a flex positive employer.
Any applicants who are offered posts requiring a
DBS check as part of their employment check will have the cost of this check
(at the current rate) deducted from their salary. Please see link in Supporting
Information section for more details on DBS checks and costs.
Essential
- Skilled at preparing and implementing pharmaceutical care plans to best meet patient needs within the ward multidisciplinary team.
- Skilled at using reference sources, journals, the internet and on-line information sources to prepare evaluated medicines information for consultants and other health-care professionals.
- Skills for providing relevant specialist pharmacy services (e.g. clinical pharmacy, medicines information, sterile dispensing).
- Able to interpret national guidelines within specialist area(s), and Trust policies, procedures and guidelines related to specialist area(s) including clinical governance and risk management.
- Skills for teaching and supervising junior pharmacists and technical staff
- Skills for utilising resources cost-effectively and highlighting where improvements could be made.
- Knowledge about chemotherapy drugs and regimens in current use.
- Knowledge about the technical aspects underpinning the working of an aseptic unit.
- Knowledge on clinical issues relating to the treatment of Haematology and oncology in-patients
- Able to supervise a team of pharmacists and technical staff
- Capable of analysing highly complex facts or situations, which require the analysis, interpretation and comparison of a range of options
- Able to work with initiative and innovation.
- Able to set priorities, meet deadlines and manage time effectively.
- A good team worker and a role model for pharmacists and technicians.
- Able to communicate information about medicines when there are barriers to understanding.
- Able to empathise with patients, carers, visitors and staff.
Essential
- Current post diploma experience in delivering specialist clinical services to a medical speciality or directorate
- Experience of delivering a clinical pharmacy service to patients requiring SACT
- Experience of working in a licensed or un-licensed aseptic unit.
- Experience of working with an electronic prescribing system
- Experience of delivering chemotherapy services (inpatient and outpatient) Experience of successfully supervising and contributing to the training of pharmacists, technicians, nurses and doctors
Desirable: - Experience as a practicing Independent prescriber in Haematology or oncology
Essential
- Professional knowledge acquired through a vocational degree in pharmacy
- Currently Registered as a pharmacist in UK: Member of the General Pharmaceutical Council
- Significant Postgraduate clinical specialist knowledge acquired through diploma level training i.e. Hold a Diploma in Clinical Pharmacy or equivalent.
- Currently meeting the GPhC standard for continuing professional development.
- Have qualified and be registered with the GPhC as an Independent Prescriber or working towards.
Desirable: - Undertaken a Masters or equivalent in Advanced Clinical Practice (ACP); - Undertaken the RPS core advanced portfolio
How to apply
Applications are handled entirely by the employer on the original advert. We do not collect CVs, supporting statements or application data.
Provenance
Source
NHS Jobs
First seen
21 October 2026
Last checked
23 October 2026
Salary, closing date and description are taken from the employer's advert. The original advert always takes precedence.
About the employer
NHS organisation
This listing was structured from NHS Jobs. Vacancy details and the application process remain the responsibility of the original source.
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