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Lead Prison Pharmacist - BSGW Region

Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust

Bishopston, Bristol, BS7 8PS

Salary

£66,582 to £77,368

Contract

Permanent

Hours

Not specified

Closing date

8 September 2026

8 days left

Job description

Are you ready tounlock your potential within a challenging, creative and fast paced work environment? Do you want to work with people to build positiv...

The Lead Prison Pharmacist will be responsible for the development, management and delivery of safe, effective and high-quality pharmacy services across the Bristol prison cluster. The post holder will provide professional leadership to pharmacy teams, ensure compliance with medicines legislation and governance requirements, and act as a Responsible Person for the Wholesale Dealer's Licence.

  • Lead and manage pharmacy services across HMP Bristol, HMP Ashfield, HMP Erlestoke and HMP Leyhill.
  • Ensure safe, legal and effective medicines management across the prison cluster.
  • Provide professional, clinical and managerial leadership to pharmacy staff.
  • Oversee medicines governance, including controlled drugs, formulary management, incident reporting and risk reduction.
  • Ensure services meet statutory, professional, Trust and contractual requirements.
  • Support staff development, training, supervision and performance management.
  • Work closely with healthcare, prison, commissioner and external partners to improve service quality.
  • Act as Responsible Person for the Wholesale Dealer's Licence, ensuring compliance with Good Distribution Practice.

Key tasks and responsibilities

1. To manage and supervise the Pharmacy service and ensure that it is compliant with statutory controls, professional requirements, and local/national policies and guidance on medicines.

2. To be responsible for ensuring the safety and quality of the pharmacy service provided to Bristol cluster of Prisons.

3. To ensure the service meets the high standards of quality as defined by the service specification and if services are noted to fall short of these requirements, to take the necessary actions to improve services to meet these requirements.

4. To lead on Medicines Management within the Bristol Prison cluster, including the development and implementation of a formulary, and to report into the Trust Medicines Management committee via the OPS Chief Pharmacist, to ensure consistency across all services provided by Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust.

5. To ensure that robust systems are in place for managing prescribed medicines that have the potential to be abused, such as Controlled Drugs.

6. To be responsible for the procurement of medicines against agreed NHS PASA contracts and to ensure appropriate stockholding for the department.

7. To ensure all medicines are procured according to Trust standing financial instructions and standing orders and in accordance with relevant medicines legislation, public procurement law, national guidance and local Standing Operating Procedures (SOPs).

8. To provide managerial support and advice, and professional, legal and clinical supervision of the prison pharmacy staff as required.

9. To ensure timely reports on the use and cost of medicines are provided to the finance department, the Chief Pharmacist, and the Commissioners as required.

10. To ensure health care professionals and offenders are provided with clinically sound, evaluated medicines information. This will include signposting to appropriate services as required.

11. To support staff in their personal development and to ensure all staff are suitably qualified for the tasks they undertake.

12. To undertake any other relevant duties, as may be required by the Chief Pharmacist

Wholesale Dealers License Duties of the Responsible Person (RP)

1. To be a RP for the purposes of the WDL and ensure GDP compliance in the pharmacy store. Responsibilities include:-

a. Ensuring that a quality management system is implemented and maintained.

b. Focusing on the management of authorised activities and accuracy and quality of records.

c. Ensuring that initial and continuous training programs are implemented and maintained.

d. Co-ordinating and promptly performing any recall operations for medicinal products.

e. Ensuring that relevant customer complaints are dealt with effectively.

f. Ensuring suppliers and customers are approved.

g. Ensuring that self-inspections are performed at appropriate regular intervals following a pre-arranged programme and that necessary corrective measures are put in place.

h. Keeping appropriate records of any delegated duties (duties, but not responsibilities, can be delegated).

i. Deciding on the final disposition of returned, rejected, recalled or falsified products.

j. Approving any returns to saleable stock.

k. Ensuring that any additional requirements imposed on certain products by national law are adhered to.

2. To be continuously contactable during working hours.

3. To sign off all standing operating procedures.

Oxleas offers a wide range of NHS healthcare services to people in community and secure environment settings. Our services include community health care such as district nursing and speech and language therapy, care for people with learning disabilities and mental health care such as psychiatry, nursing and therapies. Our multidisciplinary teams look after people of all ages and we work in close partnership with other parts of the NHS, local councils and the voluntary sector and through our new provider collaboratives. Our 4,300 members of staff work in many different settings including hospitals, clinics, prisons, secure hospitals, children's centres, schools and people's homes.We have over 125 sites in a variety of locations in the South of England. In London we operate within the Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley Greenwich and into Kent. We manage hospital sites including Queen Mary's Hospital, Sidcup and Memorial Hospital, Woolwich, as well as the Bracton Centre, our medium secure unit for people with mental health needs. We are the largest NHS provider of prison health services providing healthcare to prisons within Devon, Dorset, Bristol, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, Kent and South London. We are proud of the care we provide and our people.

Our purpose is to improve lives by providing the best possible care to our patients and their families. This is strengthened by our new values:

  • We're Kind
  • We're Fair
  • We Listen
  • We Care

Education/Qualifications

Essential

  • Masters Degree in Pharmacy or equivalent
  • Registered with the GPhC
  • Diploma in Clinical Pharmacy or postgraduate qualification in Mental Health/Prison Health Services
  • Evidence of CPD

Desirable

  • Management qualification

Experience

Essential

  • Experience of managing, planning and developing pharmacy services
  • At least 5 years experience post registration of providing clinical services within prisons or hospitals

Desirable

  • Experience of providing clinical services to mental health or substance misuse patients
  • Experience of writing a formulary

Skills/Knowledge

Essential

  • Ability to take a strategic overview of a service
  • Ability to supervise and train others clinically

Desirable

  • Specialist knowledge of mental health medicines and treatment of substance misuse

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

25 August 2026

Last checked

27 August 2026

Salary, closing date and description are taken from the employer's advert. The original advert always takes precedence.

About the employer

ONF
Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust

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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