Senior PCN Clinical Pharmacist

Job summary

This is an exciting opportunity for a Senior Clinical Lead Pharmacist to join our supportive and friendly Stafford Central Primary Care Network (PCN) and provide key expertise and support to the practice.

The post holder will work within their clinical competencies as part of a multi-disciplinary team to improve the quality and safety of care offered to patients of Stafford Central Primary Care Network. The post holder will lead the team to deliver exceptional care and treatment for patients ensuring all clinical targets are achieved.

Main duties of the job

The Senior Clinical Lead Pharmacist will lead focus on ensuring the team manages all responsibilities in an efficient and effective manner, including managing prescription requests, complex face to face medication reviews, polypharmacy, opiate prescribing, and network quality activities such as sharing best practice and cross-network audit.

The Senior Clinical Lead Pharmacist will be responsible for developing and manage managing medicines optimisation services within the network practices. They will provide leadership on quality improvement and clinical audit as well as managing aspects of medicines safety and antibiotic stewardship. They will also support the management of patients with long-term conditions.

The Senior Clinical Lead Pharmacist will be expected to:

Complete the CPPE Development Pathway

Perform structured medication reviews (SMRs) to proactively manage patients with complex polypharmacy and care home residents.

Be involved in the management of long-term conditions.

Embrace and lead service development to grow their own capabilities and the clinical pharmacy team.

The ideal candidate will be a senior clinical pharmacist with clinical lead experience and be an independent prescriber. We are looking for someone who is committed to leading a team to improve patient care and is enthusiastic about clinical pharmacy. The candidate must be able to lead, develop and support their team and be comfortable in encouraging new ways of working.

About us

We have 3 Practices with a combined 40,000 patient population in the market town of Stafford, Staffordshire.

Weeping Cross Health Centre - Weeping Cross

Mill Bank Surgery - Stafford Town

Gnosall Health Centre - Gnosall

The PCN consists of large multi-disciplinary teams including GPs, ANPs, Mental Health Practioners, Clinical Pharmacists, GP Assistants, First Contact Physiotherapists, Social Prescribers, Care Coordinators.

We pride ourselves on being forward thinking and diverse in our approach to patient care.

Job description

Job responsibilities

The Senior Clinical Lead Pharmacist will lead the pharmacy team to cover polypharmacy reviews for Chronic Disease Management such as, managing hypertension/Type 2 Diabetes/Asthma/COPD patients.

Medication reviews for Older People with Frailty.

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

Care home medication management and SMRs

The Senior Clinical Lead Pharmacist must ensure themselves and the pharmacy team undertake clinical medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for the clinical pharmacists, nurses or GPs on prescribing and monitoring.

Work with the team and care home staff to improve safety of medicines ordering and administration.

Risk stratification the Senior Pharmacist will ensure the pharmacy team complete and provide as required:

Audits and medication switches as per practice and ICB priorities

Prescribing Safety, Clinical audits, and Local Enhanced Services support

Focusing on QOF Domains, improving disease registers

The post holder will lead the team in supporting the hospital, discharges, and unplanned admissions to include:

Ensure medication reviews where requests have come from hospital specialists are completed by the team in a timely manner.

Ensure medication requests for acute items are raised by the pharmacy team in a timely manner.

Management of medicines on discharge from hospital including patient cohorts who attend with medicines related issues. , Diabetic patients presenting with hypoglycaemia.

Patient medications support and Patient clinical reviews.

Provide minor ailments advice where appropriate.

Manage the day-to-day request for prescriptions workflow by making clinical decisions and prescribing where necessary, communicating advice and decisions to patients and practice staff.

Lead the pharmacy team to provide optimum clinical advice and expertise on medicines to practice staff and patients.

Provide telephone advice for patients with questions, queries, and concerns about their medicines.

Medicines quality improvement and service development

To share the workload around medications across the practice more appropriately to support other professionals.

To lead the team on medicines safety and quality of prescribed medicines.

Provide senior lead support on medicines related issues to the whole practice team.

Medicines reconciliation on transfer between care providers.

Lead on prescription management such as systems and processes, ensuring monitoring by the pharmacy team is being done.

Lead the pharmacy team on implementing changes to medicines that result from MHRA alerts, product withdrawal and other local and national guidance.

Communication and Engagement

Recognises and respects the roles of other colleagues within the PCN and their role to patient care.

Demonstrates use of appropriate communication with relevant stakeholders (including patients, senior and peer colleagues, and other professionals, other NHS/private organisations , ICBs)

Demonstrates ability to work as a senior lead member of a team.

The post holder is able to recognise personal limitations and refer to more appropriate colleague(s) when necessary.

Actively work toward leading and developing the pharmacy team whilst maintaining effective working relationships both within and outside the practice network.

Foster and maintain strong links with all services across locality.

Explore the potential for collaborative working and takes opportunities to initiate and sustain such relationships.

Demonstrates ability and leadership to help integrate general practice with community and hospital pharmacy teams.

To consult with ICB colleagues including ICB Pharmacists on prescribing related matters to ensure consistency of patient care and benefit and implement within the PCN.

T o liaise with in a professional manner with the pharmacy team and other stakeholders as needed for the collective benefit of patients including but not limited to Patients GP, nurses, other practice staff, ICB pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, optometrists, dentists, health & social care teams, dieticians, Locality / GP prescribing lead, CLCH Locality managers, Community nurses and other allied health professionals, community and hospital pharmacy teams, Hospital staff with responsibilities for prescribing and medicines optimisation.

To develop and facilitate a good working relationship with community pharmacists and other local providers of healthcare.

Leading the pharmacy team in delivering a quality service

To plan and organise own workload.

To be responsible for and lead the pharmacy teams audit and project work.

Demonstrate understanding of the implications of national priorities for the team and/or service. Demonstrate understanding of the process for effective pharmacy resource utilisation.

Demonstrate and leads understanding of, and conforms to, relevant standards of practice. Support delivery of reporting outcomes.

Demonstrates ability to critically evaluate and review literature and identify where there is a gap in the evidence base to support practice.

To maintain registration as a pharmacist and comply with appropriate professional codes.

As appropriate to the post, to maintain and develop professional competence and expertise, keep up to date with medical/therapeutic evidence and opinion, and local and national service, legislation, and policy developments.

To attend local, regional, and national meetings of relevance as agreed with the post holders line manager.

To undertake any other duties commensurate with the post holders grade as agreed with the post holders line manager.

All employees should understand that it is their personal responsibility to comply with all organisational and statutory requirements (, health and safety, equal treatment and diversity, confidentiality, and clinical governance).

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.

Demonstrate ability to motivate self and lead the pharmacy team to achieve goals.

This job profile is intended by the PCN to provide an outline of the duties and responsibilities of this post and may change from time to time by agreement between Stafford Central Primary Care Network and the post holder.

Following consultation post holders may be required by a PCN Practice to do other duties commensurate with their grade and experience for short periods of time.

Agree objectives and a personal development plan and participate in the appraisal process.

Lead, agree objectives and a personal development plan in the appraisal process for the pharmacy team.

Lead on establishing monthly pharmacy team meeting and ensure regular one to ones take place to provide feedback and support.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

GPhC registered pharmacist and must hold a a GPhC independent prescribing qualification. Have a minimum of 2 years working as a pharmacist demonstrated within a practice portfolio. Experience in managing pharmacy services in primary care. Experience and an awareness of common acute and chronic conditions that are likely to be seen in general practice. Ability to communicate complex and sensitive information effectively with people at all levels by telephone, email and face to face

Desirable

Minor ailments certification, membership of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. Working towards faculty membership of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society Medicines Management Qualification MUR and repeat dispensing certification

Experience

Essential

Minimum of 2 years post qualifying experience as a pharmacist. An appreciation of the nature of GPs and general practice. An appreciation of the nature of primary care prescribing, concepts of rational prescribing and strategies for improving prescribing. Experience in managing pharmacy services in primary care. Experience and an awareness of common acute and chronic conditions that are likely to be seen in general practice.

Desirable

In-depth therapeutic and clinical knowledge and understanding of the principles of evidence-based healthcare. Understanding of the mentorship process. An appreciation of the new NHS landscape including the relationships between individual practices, PCNs and the commissioners. Broad knowledge of general practice.

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