Medical Affair Pharmacist jobs

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Clinical Pharmacist to develop a pioneering role within primary care. Suthergrey House Medical Centre is looking for a Clinical Pharmacist to join its team of clinical pharmacists. The team consists of a senior pharmacist and 2 other clinical pharmacists. Suthergrey House Medical Centre supports nearly 9k patients. There is a part-time opportunity, 16 hours per week. The successful candidate will work independently at network and practice level, but also as part of a supportive practice team, to deliver safe and effective use of medicines by applying their clinical and pharmaceutical skills to a variety of tasks within the medicine’s optimisation agenda.

The Clinical Pharmacist is very much a patient-facing role and there will be plenty of opportunity to utilise your clinical skills to improve the health of the local community. This will include managing long-term conditions, supporting hospital discharge prescribing arrangements, providing specific advice for those on multiple medications and supporting the GP practices involved to develop the clinical pharmacist role. You will act as a specialist resource to answer medicines-related queries, to signpost to other services and to liaise with other healthcare professionals as required. We are looking for candidates who are enthusiastic and adaptable to change, with excellent clinical skills and a good level of competence in use of IT. Candidates should exhibit good organisational skills and ability to communicate effectively with a wide range of healthcare professionals and other stakeholders including patients, families, and carers.

Suthergrey House Medical Centre works within Central Watford PCN which consists of three practices and offers services to nearly 40k patients.

You will have access to a Senior Clinical Pharmacist and a GP for supervision. These are new, exciting posts in which you could make a real impact. As the role is patient-facing, you will see how your role directly impacts the community you serve. There will be further progression as per the needs of the locality population and practice need.

Clinical Pharmacist Job Description

Reporting to: Practice Manager / Practice Partners as necessary

Base: Watford

Salary: Depending on experience

Hours: 16 hours per week working pattern to be agreed.

Job Summary:

The post holder is a pharmacist, who acts within their professional boundaries, supporting and working alongside a team of pharmacists in general practice. In this role they will be supported by a senior clinical pharmacist who will develop, manage and mentor them.

The post holder will work as part of a multi-disciplinary team in a patient facing role. The post holder will take responsibility for areas of chronic disease management within the practice and undertake clinical medication reviews to proactively manage patients with complex polypharmacy.

The post holder will provide primary support to general practice staff with regards to prescription and medication queries. They will help support the repeat prescriptions system, deal with acute prescription requests, and medicines reconciliation on transfer of care and systems for safer prescribing, providing expertise in clinical medicines advice while addressing both public and social care needs of patient in the GP practices.

The post holder will provide clinical leadership on medicines optimisation and quality improvement and manage some aspects of the quality and outcomes framework and enhanced services.

The post holder will ensure that the practice integrates with community and hospital pharmacy to help utilise skill mix, improve patient outcomes, ensure better access to healthcare and help manage workload. The role is pivotal to improving the quality of care and operational efficiencies so requires motivation and passion to deliver excellent service within general practice.

If necessary, the post holder will be supported to develop their role to become a non-medical prescriber.

Primary Duties and Areas of Responsibility

Patient facing Long-‐term condition clinics

See (where appropriate) patients with single or multiple medical problems where medicine optimisation is required (e.g. COPD, asthma). Review the ongoing 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 Senior Pharmacists or GPs for medicine improvement.

Patient facing Clinical Medication Review

Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for senior clinical pharmacist, nurses and/or GP on prescribing and monitoring.

Patient facing care home medication reviews

Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for the senior clinical pharmacist, nurses or GPs on prescribing and monitoring. Work with care home staff to improve safety of medicines ordering and administration.

Patient facing domiciliary clinical medication review

Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for the senior clinical pharmacists, nurses and GPs on prescribing and monitoring. Attend and refer patients to multidisciplinary case conferences.

Management of common/minor/self-limiting ailments

Managing caseload for patients with common/minor/self-limiting ailments while working within a scope of practice and limits of competence. Signposting to community pharmacy and referring to GPs or other healthcare professionals where appropriate.

Patient facing medicines support

Provide patient facing clinics for those with questions, queries and concerns about their medicines in the practice.

Telephone medicines support

Provide a telephone help line for patients with questions, queries and concerns about their medicines.

Medicine information to practice staff and patients

Answers all 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. Providing follow up for patients to monitor the effect of any changes

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.

Management of medicines at discharge from hospital

To reconcile medicines following discharge from hospitals, intermediate care and into care homes, including identifying and rectifying unexplained changes and working 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).

Signposting

Ensure that 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.

Repeat prescribing

Produce and implement a practice repeat prescribing policy. 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.

Risk stratification

Identification of cohorts 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.

Service development

Contribute pharmaceutical advice for the development and implementation of new services that have medicinal components (e.g. advice on treatment pathways and patient information leaflets).

Information management

Analyse, interpret and present medicines data to highlight issues and risks to support decision making.

Medicines quality improvement

Undertake simple audits of prescribing in areas directed by the GPs, feedback the results and implement changes in conjunction with the practice team.

Medicines safety

Implement changes to medicines that result from MHRA alerts, product withdrawal and other local and national guidance.

Implementation of local and national guidelines and formulary recommendations

Monitor practice prescribing against the local health economy’s 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 the practice’s computer system. Auditing practice’s compliance against NICE technology assessment guidance. Provide newsletters or bulletins on important prescribing messages.

Education and Training

Provide education and training to primary healthcare team on therapeutics and medicines optimisation.

Care Quality Commission

Work with the general practice team to ensure the practice is compliant with CQC standards where medicines are involved.

Public health

To support public health campaigns. To provide specialist knowledge on all public health programmes available to the general public.

Collaborative Working Relationships

· Recognises the roles of other colleagues within the organisation and their role to patient care

· Demonstrates use of appropriate communication to gain the co-operation of relevant stakeholders (including patients, senior and peer colleagues, and other professionals, other NHS/private organisations e.g. CCGs)

· Demonstrates ability to work as a member of a team

· Is able to recognise personal limitations and refer to more appropriate colleague(s) when necessary

· Actively work toward developing and maintaining effective working relationships both within and outside the practice and locality

· Foster and maintain strong links with all services across locality

· Explores the potential for collaborative working and takes opportunities to initiate and sustain such relationships

· Demonstrates ability to integrate general practice with community and hospital pharmacy teams

· Liaises with CCG colleagues including CCG Pharmacists on prescribing related matters to ensure consistency of patient care and benefit

· Liaises with CCG pharmacists and Heads of Medicines Management/ Optimisation to benefit from peer support

· Liaises with other GP Practices and staff as needed for the collective benefit of patients including but not limited to

o Patients

o GP, nurses and other practice staff

o Other healthcare professionals including CCG pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, optometrists, dentists, health and social care teams and dieticians etc

o Locality / GP prescribing lead

o Locality managers

o Community nurses and other allied health professionals

o Community and hospital pharmacy teams

o Hospital staff with responsibilities for prescribing and medicines optimisation

Knowledge, Skills and Experience Required

Completion of an undergraduate degree in pharmacy and registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council

• Minimum of 2 years’ experience as a pharmacist, demonstrated within a practice portfolio
• Has experience and an awareness of common acute and long-term conditions that are likely to be seen in general practice
• May hold or be working towards an independent prescribing qualification.
• Recognises priorities when problem-solving and identifies deviations from normal pattern and is able to refer to seniors or GPs when appropriate
• Able to follow legal, ethical, professional and organisational policies/procedures and codes of conduct
• Involves patients in decisions about prescribed medicines and supporting adherence as per NICE guidelines.

NB: it is anticipated of qualification held may vary according to the level of position and the components of the role being carried out, see person specification that the level.

Leadership:

Demonstrate understanding of the pharmacy role in governance and is able to implement this appropriately within the workplace

• Demonstrate understanding of, and contributes to, the workplace vision
• Engages with Patient Participation Groups (PPGs) and involves PPGs in development of the role and practices
• Demonstrates ability to improve quality within limitations of service
• Reviews yearly progress and develops clear plans to achieve results within priorities set by others.
• Demonstrate ability to motivate self to achieve goals
• Promotes diversity and equality in people management techniques and leads by example

Management:

Demonstrate understanding of the implications of national priorities for the team and/or service

• Demonstrate understanding of the process for effective resource utilisation
• Demonstrate understanding of, and conforms to, relevant standards of practice
• Demonstrates ability to identify and resolve risk management issues according to policy/protocol
• Follows professional and organisational policies/procedures relating to performance management
• Demonstrate ability to extend boundaries of service delivery within the team

Education, Training and Development:

Understands and demonstrates the characteristics of a role model to members in the team and/or service

• Demonstrates understanding of the mentorship process
• Demonstrates ability to conduct teaching and assessment effectively according to a learning plan with supervision from more experience colleague
• Demonstrates self-development through continuous professional development activity; working alongside senior clinical pharmacist to identifying areas to develop
• Participates in the delivery of formal education programmes
• Demonstrates an understanding of current educational policies relevant to working areas of practice and keeps up to date with relevant clinical practice.
• Ensures appropriate clinical supervision is in place to support development
• Enrolled into review and appraisal systems within the practice

Research and Evaluation:

Demonstrates ability to critically evaluate and review literature

• Demonstrates ability to identify where there is a gap in the evidence base to support practice
• Demonstrates ability to generate evidence suitable for presentations at practice and local level
• Demonstrates ability to apply research evidence base into working place
• Demonstrates understanding of principles of research governance

Health and Safety/Risk Management

· The post-holder must comply at all times with the Practice’s Health and Safety policies, in particular by following agreed safe working procedures and reporting incidents using the organisations Incident Reporting System

· The post-holder will comply with the Data Protection Act (1984) and the Access to Health Records Act (1990)

Equality and Diversity

· The post-holder must co-operate with all policies and procedures designed to ensure equality of employment. Co-workers, patients and visitors must be treated equally irrespective of gender, ethnic origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, religion etc.

Respect for Patient Confidentiality

· The post-holder should always respect patient confidentiality and not divulge patient information unless sanctioned by the requirements of the role.

Special Working Conditions

· The post-holder is required to travel independently between practice sites and to attend meetings etc hosted by other agencies.

· The post-holder may have contact with body fluids ie, wound exudates; urine etc while in clinical practice.

Job Description Agreement

This job description is intended to provide an outline of the key tasks and responsibilities only. There may be other duties required of the post-holder commensurate with the position. This description will be open to regular review and may be amended to take into account development within the Practice. All members of staff should be prepared to take on additional duties or relinquish existing duties in order to maintain the efficient running of the Practice.

If you have any questions or would like an informal visit, please call 01923 224424 and ask to speak with Laura Whittington, Practice Manager

This job description is intended as a basic guide to the scope and responsibilities of the post and is not exhaustive. It will be subject to regular review and amendment as necessary in consultation with the post holder.

Benefits:

• Company pension
• Free flu jabs
• Free parking
• On-site parking
• Sick pay

Experience:

• Pharmacist: 1 year (preferred)

Work Location: In person