Primary Care Network

Job summary

The post holder will be employed by Greenwich Health, the GP Federation in Greenwich. Greenwich has 6 primary care networks (PCNS) with list sizes of between 30-80,000 patients. The Post holder will work for Valentine Health Partnership, part of Valentine Primary Care Network.

Your normal hours of work will be between to Monday to Saturday.

The postholder will work as part of a multi-disciplinary team in a patient-facing role

Proactively manage patients with co-morbidities

Provide support to general practice staff with regards to prescription andmedication queries. Support the repeat prescriptions system,deal with acute prescription requests, and medicines reconciliation on transferof care and systems for safer prescribing, providing expertise in clinicalmedicines advice while addressing both public and social care needs of patientin the GP practices

Provide leadership on medicines optimisation and quality improvement andmanage some aspects of the quality and outcomes framework and enhancedservices.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will preferably be an independent prescriber (not essential) and has experience of working in primary care. Will need to be able to:

- Hold patient facing reviews and provide medicine support

- Manage medicines in discharges from hospital

- Hold long-term conditions clinics

- Provide patient telephone support

- Be a centre of medicines information for practice staff

- support and adhere to repeat prescribing processes

- Support medicines safety and local/national guidelines

About us

About us

Greenwich Health is the GP Federation for the Greenwich Borough and have a not-for-profit ethos. This means we reinvest all of our surplus into developing our staff, our organisation and to support our GP Practices in being sustainable for the future. We are committed to providing quality of care to our patients whilst building resilience for General Practice and providing services and programmes of work to deliver care at scale to the Greenwich Population.

Why work for Greenwich Health?

- We are local organisation owned by our local GP Practices we care what happens in Greenwich and want to make a difference to our patients and our partners.

- We offer competitive remuneration as well as other benefits including:

o Occupational sickness pay entitlement

o Counselling services

o Electric Vehicle Salary Sacrifice Scheme

o Cycle to Work Scheme

o Private Healthcare Membership - Benenden Healthcare

- We have a track record for developing individuals in their careers

- Through our partnerships in our local healthcare environment, we can develop shared posts for example, with the hospital trust and our GP practices.

-You will have ongoing support and mentorship.

- We have developed a working culture which harnesses openness and togetherness which has resulted in high staff retention rates.

Job description

Job responsibilities

Job Summary

The post holder will work as part of a multi-disciplinary teamin a patient-facing role.

Proactively manage patients with co-morbidities in the area ofchronic disease management within the practice.

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

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

The role is pivotal to improving the quality of care andoperational efficiencies so requires motivation and passion to deliverexcellent service within general practice.

Your normal hours of work will be between to Monday to Saturday.

IndividualResponsibilities

The post holderis expected to:

Adhere to organisation policies and proceduresand relevant legislation including the requirements of any professional bodies.

Maintain satisfactory personal performances and professionalstandards and to achieve agreed objectives for their role.

Attend mandatory training as identified by theorganisation.

Participate in a Performance Appraisal Schemeand to contribute to their own development and the development of any staff theyare responsible for appraising.

Responsible to have professional indemnitysuitable for the range of work undertaking.

Responsible to have authorisation for makingchanges to prescribing records within the practice. This may be by writtenagreement or GP signature for specific audits.

Working Relationships:

Patients and carers where appropriate

GPs, nurses and other practice staff includingpractice pharmacists

GP prescribing leads

CCG pharmacists and medicines management team

Secondary Care and interface Pharmacists

Community Nurses and other allied healthprofessionals

Community Pharmacists and support staff

The post holderis expected to work as a flexible member of the PCN providing support to otherteam members when necessary and to take an active role in the development andembedding of the PCNs culture, values and reputation as providers of highquality services.

Health & Safety

The post-holderwill assist in promoting and maintaining their own and others health, safetyand security as defined in the practice Health & Safety Policy, to include:

Using personal security systems within theworkplace according to practice guidelines

Identifying the risks involved in workactivities and undertaking such activities in a way that manages those risks

Making effective use of training to updateknowledge and skills

Using appropriate infection control procedures,maintaining work areas in a tidy and safe way and free from hazards Reportingpotential risks identified

Equality and Diversity:

The post-holder will support theequality, diversity and rights of patients, carers and colleagues, to include:

Acting in a way that recognises the importanceof peoples rights, interpreting them in a way that is consistent with Practiceprocedures and policies, and current legislation

Respecting the privacy, dignity, needs andbeliefs of patients, carers and colleagues

Behaving in a manner which is welcoming to andof the individual, is non-judgmental and respects their circumstances, feelingpriorities and rights.

Personal/ProfessionalDevelopment:

The post-holderwill participate in any training programme implemented by the PCN as part ofthis employment, such training to include:

Participation in an annual individualperformance review, including taking responsibility for maintaining a record ofown personal and/or professional development

Taking responsibility for own development,learning and performance and demonstrating skill and activities to others whoare undertaking similar work

Training may need to be undertaken outside ofnormal practice hours, and off site.

The PCN haveinvested in support from an organisation called Soar Beyond. Soar Beyondspecialise in supporting the creation of teams of pharmacists across a networkof practices. It is supported by a web platform called SMART which assessespharmacist competency levels in a range of different disease areas and isbacked up by training programmes to develop the individual where there might begaps that the individual and the PCN would like to be filled. Currently theteam is working towards competency in Diabetes management and the PCN isimplementing a pharmacist led Diabetes pathway to be used across practices.

Quality and Governance:

The post-holderwill strive to maintain quality within the PCN, and will:

Alert other team members to issues of qualityand risk

Assess own performance and take accountabilityfor own actions, either directly or under supervision.

Work effectively with individuals in otheragencies

Effectively manage own time, workload andresources

Confidentiality:

In the courseof seeking treatment, patients entrust us with, or allow us to gather,sensitive information in relation to their health and other matters. They do so in confidence and have the rightto expect that staff will respect their privacy, act appropriately and in accordance with the practice policies and procedures relating to confidentiality and the protection of personal and sensitive data.

Patient facing Clinical Medication Review

Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients with multimorbidity and poly-pharmacy and implement own prescribing changes (as an independent prescriber) and order relevant monitoring tests

Patient facing medicines support

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

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 manage these changes without referral to a GP.

Perform a clinical medication review, produce a post discharge medicines care plan including dose titration and booking of follow up tests and working with patients and community pharmacists to ensure patients receive the medicines they need post discharge and working with patients and community pharmacists to ensure patients receive the medicines they need post discharge.

Work in partnership with hospital colleagues ( care of the elderly doctors and clinical pharmacists) to proactively manage patients at high risk of medicine related problems before they are discharged to ensure continuity of care.

Patient facing Long term condition

Manage own case load and run long-term condition clinics where responsible for prescribing as an independent prescriber (if suitably qualified)

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 ( medicines optimisation).

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 medicine-related enquiries from GPs, other practice staff, other healthcare teams ( 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

Devise and implement practice searches to identify cohorts of patients most likely to be at risk of an unplanned admission and readmissions from medicines.

Telephone triage

Ensure that patients are referred to the appropriate healthcare professional for the appropriate level of care within an appropriate period of time pathology test 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; make necessary changes as an independent prescriber, and ensure patients are booked in for necessary monitoring tests where required.

Information management

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

Medicines safety

Identify national and local policy and guidance that affects patient safety through the use of medicines, including MHRA alerts, product withdrawals and emerging evidence form clinical trials.

Manage the process of implementing changes to medicines and guidance for practitioners.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

- Masters degree in Pharmacy - Specialist knowledge acquired through postgraduate diploma level or equivalent training/experience

Desirable

Independent Prescriber

Experience

Essential

- Minimum 5 years post-qualification experience - In-depth therapeutic and clinical knowledge and understanding of the principles of evidence-based healthcare. - An appreciation of the nature of GPs and general practices

Professional Registration

Essential

- Registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council

Desirable

- Membership of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society - Member of or working towards Faculty membership of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society

Other

Essential

- Demonstrate the ability to communicate complex and sensitive information in an understandable form to a variety of audiences - Excellent interpersonal, influencing and negotiating skills - Demonstrates accountability for delivering professional expertise and direct service provision.

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