PCN Clinical Pharmacist

The clinical pharmacist will provide expertise in clinical medicines management, provide structured medication reviews, manage long term conditions, manage medicines on transfer of care and systems for safer prescribing, manage repeat prescription authorisation and acute prescription requests. As part of the wider team they will address the public health and social care needs of patients in the GP surgeries that make up the PCN.

The post holder will perform medication reviews for patients with polypharmacy especially for older people, people in care homes and those with multiple co-morbidities. The post holder will provide leadership on quality improvement and clinical audit as well as managing some aspects of the quality and outcomes framework.

practice

medicine optimisation is required (e.g. Respiratory, Cardiovascular and

Diabetes). Review the on-going need for each medicine, a review of monitoring

needs and an opportunity to support patients with their medicines taking, ensuring

they get the best use of their medicines (i.e. medicines optimisation). Make

appropriate recommendations to GPs and AHPs for medicine

improvement.

clinical medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for the

GP on prescribing and monitoring.

with care home staff to improve safety of medicines ordering and

administration. Undertake clinical medication reviews with care home patients

and produce recommendations for the GP on prescribing and monitoring.

clinical medication reviews with patients at home and produce recommendations

for the GPs on prescribing and monitoring. Attend and refer patients to

multidisciplinary case conferences.

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.

facing clinics in practices for those with questions and concerns about their medicines.

advice for patients with questions and concerns about their medicines.

medicine-related enquiries from GPs, other surgery staff, other healthcare

teams (e.g. community pharmacy) and patients with queries about medicines.

Suggesting and recommending solutions. Provide follow up for patients to

monitor the effect of any changes.

patients are referred to the appropriate healthcare professional for the

appropriate level of care within an appropriate period of time e.g. pathology

results, common/minor ailments, acute conditions, long term condition reviews

etc.

pharmaceutical advice to repeat prescribing policy within each practice. Support

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.

pharmaceutical advice for the development and implementation of new services

that have medicinal components (e.g. advice on treatment pathways and patient

information leaflets.

specialist knowledge and provide specialist clinics in defined clinical areas.

communication styles, to ensure patients are fully informed and consent to

treatment.

support patients and their families.

patients and carers, recognising the need for alternative methods of

communication to overcome different levels of understanding, cultural

background and preferred ways of communicating.

communication and take action to improve communication.

within the practice environment and with external stakeholders.

case conferences and CPA meetings as required.

colleagues.

support and guidance and provide information in an acceptable format to

all patients, recognising any difficulties and referring where appropriate.

members

a quality service

clinical audits of prescribing in areas directed by the GPs, feed back the

results and implement changes in conjunction with the relevant practice team.

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

decision making.

prescribing against the local health economys RAG list and make

recommendations to GPs for medicines that should be prescribed by hospital

doctors (red drugs) or subject to shared care (amber drugs). Assist practices

in seeing and maintaining a practice formulary that is hosted on each

practices computer system.

compliance against NICE technology assessment guidance.

prescribing messages.

to medicines that result from MHRA alerts, product withdrawal and other local

and national guidance.

general practice teams to ensure the practices are compliant with CQC standards

where medicines are involved.

competence and professional code of conduct as regulated by the PC.

and complete records of patient consultation, consistent with legislation,

policies and procedures.

workload in a manner that maintains and promotes quality.

delivery through self and 360 peer review, benchmarking and formal

evaluation.

Managers and GPs ensure the maintenance of quality governance systems in

the practice and participation in these.

of evaluating the quality of the work of self with lead GP, implementing

improvements where required following discussion.

health campaigns, and provide specialist knowledge on public healthprogrammes

available to the general public.

learning across the practice and wider organisation.

that support the identification of vulnerable and abused adults, and be

aware of statutory vulnerable patients health procedures and local

guidance.

family violence, vulnerable adults, substance abuse and addictive

behaviour. Provide guidance and support to ensure appropriate referral as

appropriate.

development

lead GP to undertake continual personal and professional development, taking an

active part in reviewing and developing the role and responsibilities.

professional issues that influence practice and share this with the team.

understanding of current educational policies relevant to working areas of

practice and keep up to date with relevant clinical practice.

in the delivery of formal education programmes. Provide education and training to

primary healthcare team on therapeutics and medicines optimisation.

psychological care, embracing new ideas, sharing with colleagues so that

patient care is continually evaluated and improved.

learning and professional growth and for maintaining a record of this

within a personal development plan.

development needs.

role and review annually with lead GP.

lead GP to access regular clinical supervision, to enable you to deal

effectively with the difficult issues that people present

GP and attend mandatory training as required.

progress and develop clear plans to achieve results within priorities set by

lead GP.

organisational policies and procedures, including confidentiality,

safeguarding, lone working, information governance, and health and safety.

working

identify how this may develop over time.

responsible team member, supporting others and exploring the mechanisms to

develop new ways of working.

colleagues including CCG pharmacists as appropriate, on prescribing related

matters to ensure consistency of patient care and benefit.

colleagues on prescribing related matters to ensure consistency of patient care.

maintain strong links with all services across the PCN and neighbouring

networks.

create opportunities to improve patient care.

effective time-management strategies.

the team to create opportunities to improve patient care.

of risk

of patients at high risk of harm from medicines through pre-prepared practice

computer searches. This might include risks that are patient related, medicine

related, or both.

times with Health and Safety policy, in particular following safe working

procedures and reporting incidents using the organisations Incident Reporting

Systems.

ensure they are safe and free from hazards and conform to health, safety

and security legislation, policies, procedures and guidelines.

Data Protection Act (2018) and the Access to Health Records Act (1990).

within areas of responsibility, ensuring adequate measures are in place to

patients.

within the practice according to local and national guidelines.

of local and national strategies that are aligned to the values and

culture of general practice.

Mewstone Primary Care Network has a list size of approximately 32,000 patients. The PCN practices are Church View Surgery, Wembury Surgery, Yealm Medical Practice and Dean Cross Surgery, the practices share the same ethos of supportive learning.

You will work alongside our GPs, nurse teams, administrators and extended workforce including clinical pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, first contact physiotherapist, mental health practitioner, social prescribing link workers, health & wellbeing coaches and care co-ordinators. We already have an established PCN Prescribing Hub that co-ordinates prescribing support to our practices.

All network practices are high achieving practices with a commitment to mentoring and supporting their staff.

Qualifications

Desirable: - May hold or be working towards an independent prescribing qualification; - Clinical Diploma

Attributes

Experience

Desirable: - Experience of working in General Practice and / or PCNs; - Audit; - Research; - Project management; - Home visits