Prison Services Clinical Pharmacist

Job summary

Are you ready to unlock your potential within a challenging, creative and fast paced work environment? Do you want to escape your current job role and work with people to build positive and productive lives, whatever their past? Now is the time to break into offender healthcare and develop your career.

We are currently looking for a compassionate, knowledgeable and motivated Pharmacist to join our friendly team at HMP Channings Wood, covering our Devon cluster of prisons (HMP Channings Wood, HMP Dartmoor & HMP Exeter).

Our healthcare team have a real impact on promoting health and well-being to those in prison and we pride ourselves on using skills and strategies that instil hope for patients future resettlement back into the community. We directly deliver Mental Health, Physical Health, Pharmacy and Clinical Substance Misuse in an integrated healthcare delivery model to provide effective and responsive care to improve wellbeing and support better outcomes in the future.

As part of our pharmacy service (OPS), you will enjoy all the benefits of NHS AfC employment (inc pension) with the opportunity to work within a forward-thinking service, who encourage career and personal development to all staff to increase their clinical and interpersonal skills.

Main duties of the job

As a Prison Services Clinical Pharmacist, you will provide clinical pharmacy services to patients within your allocated prison(s) and support the team of pharmacy technicians and assistants. You will be responsible for organising the pharmacy clinical service provision within the prison(s), planning your own work schedule as well as the wider teams work schedules. You will manage the day-to-day work of the pharmacy technicians within the team, supporting them clinically when on site. You will be making clinical judgments within your clinical ability where information is highly complex and the team need support.

You will undertake clinical visits within the prison, carrying out MUR's, reviewing medication history of newly admitted offenders and proving clinics for patients to give advice and support on their prescribed medicines. You will be an active member of the clinical governance/medicines management committee(s), monitor prescribing trends, and assist in writing PGD's when an appropriate use is identified. You will be required to train and educate nursing staff in the use of medicines and PGD's to ensure safe, secure prescribing and handling of medicines is taking place within the prison(s).

About us

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

o We're Kind o We're Fair o We Listen o We Care

Job description

Job responsibilities

To organise on a weekly basis the pharmacy clinical service provision to the allocated prisons, planning your work and the work of others.

To provide clinical services to the allocated prisons.

To ensure you personally have high standards of work, both clinical and dispensing and follow all standard operating procedures (SOPs) as directed by the Lead Prison Services Pharmacist.

To work as a team with the pharmacy technician in the allocated prisons and to support this technician professionally when on site.

To implement the prison formulary, in collaboration with primary care colleagues.

To generate monthly reports on drug expenditure for the allocatedprisons and to advise the prescribers on areas for improvement and efficiencies.

To provide clinical screening and final accuracy checks when working in the dispensary.

To ensure all work is carried out in a timely manner to meet the requirements of the delivery service across the prisons.

To manage the day-to-day work of the pharmacy technician when on site in the allocated prisons.

To manage your own time efficiently whilst on prison visits.

To undertake scheduled clinical visits to the allocated prisons. On these visits you will:

undertake MURs for offenders identified as requiring assistance by healthcare staff.

Review the medication history of newly admitted offenders to ensure prescriptions are correct and if necessary make recommendations to bring prescribing in line with local formulary choices.

Provide scheduled clinics for offenders to give advice and support on their prescribed medicines, OTC medicines and other medical issues they may raise.

Monitor prescribing trends and give advice to healthcare staff to improve prescribing in line with formulary choices and/or current clinical thinking.

Promote healthy lifestyles for offenders in line with local and national guidelines or promotions.

To be an active member of clinical governance/medicines management committee(s).

To work closely with the primary care providers to ensure safe prescribing, use, storage and transport of medicines within the secure environments.

To liaise with the Specialist Prison Services Pharmacist and assist in writing, in collaboration with primary care colleagues in the prison(s), Patient Group Directions (PGDs) when an appropriate use is identified.

To train nursing staff in the prison(s) in the use of these PGDs and to monitor use/compliance on an on-going basis, reporting any discrepancies to the senior pharmacist prison services.

To review PGDs in use every 1-2 years on a rolling basis as determined by the Lead Prison Services Pharmacist.

To assist the Specialist Prison Services Pharmacist to introduce new prescribing guidelines/medicines within the prison(s)

To participate in the on-call rota (as necessary) to provide support and advice to the primary care teams when the pharmacy is closed and to liaise with local community pharmacies to dispense urgent medicines during these times.

To demonstrate on-going continual professional development (CPD) and be responsible for self-development and learning within the field of pharmacy or other specialty where appropriate.

To act as responsible pharmacist when rostered to do so in the dispensary.

To dispense prescriptions and stock items when in the dispensary.

To undertake clinical screening and final accuracy checks when working in the dispensary.

To organise the sale of OTC medicines following a request from an offender in the allocated prison cluster.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION, PLEASE READ:

All applicants must be willing to undertake National Security Vetting in order to work in a Prison Setting. This will be completed as part of the pre-employment checks through Oxleas and the prison vetting team.

You will need to provide:

Proof of right to work documentation

Proof of ID, needs to include 1 photographicID

Proof of address documentation

Non-UK passport holders will need to have correct documentation (right to work in the UK) and a Home office Share code.

Address History:

5 years address history will be needed.

Applicants that are not UK Passport holders who provide less than 5 years UK address history will need to provide a Police Certificate which must be in English from where they resided previously.

Applicants who are UK Passport holders who have lived abroad for a period of more than six months during the last three years will need to provide a certificate of good conduct or an overseas police check in English from the countries resided in or visited .

In order to assist you in obtaining a Police Certificate, guidance can be sought from:

If the country you have resided in is not listed here, you can obtain the necessary information by contacting the relevant Embassy or High Commission for that Country. Their contact details can be found on the Foreign & Commonwealth Office website ( ).

Person Specification

Education & Qualifications

Essential

Masters Degree of Pharmacy or equivalent Registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council of GB (GPhC) Certificate in Clinical Pharmacy or equivalent (or working towards)

Desirable

Diploma in Clinical Pharmacy or equivalent

Experience

Essential

Previous prison/hospital/community pharmacy experience in the UK Experience of providing clinical pharmacy services At least 2 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

Skills and Abilities

Essential

Recent clinical pharmacy practice in a hospital or prison setting Sound basic clinical skills

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