Senior Pharmacist, Acute

Job summary

King's College Hospitals NHS Foundations Trust, along with The Hurley Group, have developed an integrated approach to medicines optimisation and improved community management of long term conditions.

This innovative role within the Hurley Group will involve working with eConsult to process patient queries.

This role will also support the medicines management aspects of this initiative through working within the general practice setting with the support of a Lead Clinical Pharmacist. This role will work as part of the general practice team to provide specialist advice to patients, and undertake full patient centred medication reviews to proactively manage people with complex polypharmacy, particularly the elderly and those with multiple conditions.

Main duties of the job

Participate in the multidisciplinary team delivering and promoting high quality, cost-effective, patient-focused pharmaceutical care to patients Provide interface and discharge liaison, and support to the wards & units within the Care Group Consistently lead on the provision of clinical pharmacy services to the many sub-specialties within the Care Group and ensure a high level of clinical pharmacy input Act as a clinical role model, and supervise rotational staff at ward level Audit usage of medicines in the Care Group with the aim of promoting cost effective prescribing To work with general practice staff to promote and embed the role of a GP practice pharmacist, and raise awareness of services available to patients Work within the eHub to process medication eConsults, reconcile medications and process medication workflow across the Hurley Group primary care sites in a virtual online setting. To provide operational and clinical support to medicines optimisation developments and prescribing initiatives as dictated by GP practice, CCG, and hospital Trust and service objectives To provide training regarding medication related issues and policies/guidelines to general practice staff in order to promote medicines optimisation and high quality and cost-effective prescribing as appropriate. To collate and feedback on electronic discharge related information to ensure continuing improvement of the hospital computerised discharge letter and process of communication

About us

King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is one of the UK's largest and busiest teaching Trusts with a turnover of £1 billion, million patient contacts a year and around 15,000 staff based across 5 main sites in South East London. The Trust provides a full range of local hospital services across its different sites, and specialist services from King's College Hospital (KCH) sites at Denmark Hill in Camberwell and at the Princess Royal University Hospital (PRUH) site in Bromley.

King's is committed to delivering Sustainable Healthcare for All via our Green Plan. In line with national Greener NHS ambitions, we have set net zero carbon targets of 2040 for our NHS Carbon Footprint and 2045 for our NHS Carbon Footprint Plus. Everyone's contribution is required in order to meet the goals set out in our Green Plan and we encourage all staff to work responsibly, minimising their contributions to the Trust's carbon emissions, waste and pollution wherever possible.

The trust-wide strategy Strong Roots, Global Reachis our Vision to be BOLD, Brilliant people, Outstanding care, Leaders in Research, Innovation and Education, Diversity, Equality and Inclusion at the heart of everything we do. By being person-centred, digitally-enabled, and focused on sustainability, we can take Team King's to another level.

Job description

Job responsibilities

MAIN DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES

Policy/Service Development

To propose and implement policies, guidelines and procedures designed to improve the pharmacy service to patients and the Care Group in conjunction with the Principal Pharmacist acute and emergency medicine To comment on policy and service changes and plans within the clinical pharmacy service and to contribute to, and participate in, pharmacy service developments in line with departmental and Trust policy To develop, implement and audit prescribing guidelines for use within the division in conjunction with the Principal Pharmacist acute and emergency medicine To deputise for the Principal Pharmacist acute and emergency medicine where To participate regularly in the multidisciplinary ward rounds as appropriate, and assist in the further development of the pharmacists role within the Care Group To assist in the development, implementation and audit of evidence-based prescribing guidelines/policies to improve medicines optimisation across primary/ secondary care interface and into the general practice setting To ensure services provided are in line with local and national policies, guidelines and frameworks To contribute and adhere to clinical pharmacy service standards To proactively support the development of ward and clinical pharmacy services to clinical areas in order to advance the safe, clinically effective and cost effective use of drugs To work with general practice staff to promote and embed the role of a GP practice pharmacist, and raise awareness of services available to patients Work within the eHub to process medication eConsults, reconcile medications and process medication workflow across the Hurley Group primary care sites in a virtual online setting. To provide operational and clinical support to medicines optimisation developments and prescribing initiatives as dictated by GP practice, CCG, and hospital Trust and service objectives To provide general practice staff with recommendations and plan action to proactively improve the quality of systems and processes to improve medicines optimisation within the general practice setting. To provide training regarding medication related issues and policies/guidelines to general practice staff in order to promote medicines optimisation and high quality and cost-effective prescribing as appropriate. To collate and feedback on electronic discharge related information to ensure continuing improvement of the hospital computerised discharge letter and process of communication To work with primary care healthcare professionals to ensure agreed changes in medication are implemented and sustained To support the development of pharmacist led pathways in the management of acute and minor ailments and illness across primary and secondary To develop skills including management of both minor ailments and specified long term conditions as required to practice as a part of the multidisciplinary team so as to ensure clinically effective and cost-efficient use of drugs Provide patient facing, online or telephone support to patients those with questions, queries and concerns about their medicines in the practice

Patient/Client Care

To act as a specialist practitioner in the clinical area To accurately record clinical activity within patient notes and the relevant electronic clinical systems such as eConsult, EMIS, iCARE, Sunrise and Symphony To promote and deliver pharmaceutical care specifically for acute and emergency medicine patients within the Care Group and more generally for all patients To contribute and adhere to clinical pharmacy service standards To provide highly specialised evidence-based clinical advice and information to nursing and medical staff on the care and treatment of patients To actively participate in key multi-disciplinary ward rounds and post-take rounds within the Care Group To contribute to and participate in the clinical/ward pharmacy service Where appropriate and necessary to practice as a prescriber in area of own expertise, as appropriate, and provide direct high quality of care to acute and emergency medicine patients To ensure appropriate and timely supply of medication to patients in conjunction with dispensary staff. To liaise with other pharmacists/healthcare professionals to ensure efficient transfer of clinical and medicines management issues To participate in discharge planning, including writing discharge medication drug lists To ensure appropriate and timely supply of medication to patients, including participation in the POD scheme To communicate information following assessing patients medicines needs with relevant members of the multidisciplinary team as required in the general practice and primary care setting. This will include close liaison with community and hospital service colleagues in addition to GPs and other practice staff, carers, and other members of both primary and secondary care teams To communicate medication related issues to patients and relatives. This includes medication history taking, medication review and medication counselling and overcoming barriers to understanding and communication such as language, hearing, visual or cognitive difficulties. Communication is either verbal in the form of face to face contact, over the telephone or written in the form of medication reminder charts To provide support to improve concordance and help patients get the best from their medicines, reducing medicines related admissions (including falls), and promoting appropriate evidence-based and cost-effective prescribing. This will involve advice on de-prescribing where appropriate To communicate verbal and written information across the primary and secondary care interface regarding patients therapy on admission and discharge, documenting key information in the primary care record (EMIS) or Electronic Discharge Notification (EDN), and, where appropriate, resolving queries to support vulnerable patients with medicines management needs To liaise with relevant CCG colleagues on prescribing related issues to ensure consistency of patient care

Financial/Resource Management

To support the Principal Pharmacist acute and emergency medicine in monitoring drug expenditure within the Care Group and provide accurate expenditure information, with appropriate analysis to the Care Group To support the delivery of targets in the general practice setting in relation to medicines optimisation and service delivery within quality and outcomes framework areas and enhanced services as required To provide pharmaceutical advice on the use of more cost-effective drugs across the primary and secondary care interface and within the general practice setting, including the provision of advice and implementation of formulary recommendations and shared care guidance To identify areas of potential cost-savings within the Care Group, and to implement systems to achieve savings and contain prescribing costs To support the development and implementation of policies to control drug expenditure and ensure cost-effective prescribing To educate other healthcare professionals on the costs associated with drug therapy and promote the use of evidence-based, cost-effective prescribing within the Care Group To attend Care Group financial meetings when required To provide accurate and timely data to the Trust Finance department regarding use of high cost drugs to ensure recouping of income from NHSE/CCGs

Staff Management, Performance & Training

To participate in the recruitment and selection of pharmacy students, pre-registration pharmacists, and junior pharmacists as needed To assist in the training, supervision and assessment of junior pharmacy staff providing a ward/clinical pharmacy service to wards within the Division To plan activities for, supervise and train trainee pharmacists and pharmacy students where appropriate To supervise and support the day-to-day activities of technical staff providing ward based pharmacy services if required To participate in the in-service clinical pharmacy training of all pharmacy staff To undertake CPD to ensure that knowledge is continually updated To participate in the training and development of medical staff, nursing and other healthcare staff, as appropriate To provide training to general practice staff to promote medicines optimisation in practice

Research & Development

To regularly initiate or contribute to relevant practice research or audit projects within the Care Group and to publish the results of such work, as appropriate To participate in clinical audit in medicines optimisation initiatives to influence quality improvement around use of medicines with general practice and across local healthcare settings To participate in other research and audit programmes in the department as required. To maintain and further develop specialist information on the use of drugs in clinical conditions relevant to the specialty To publish and present the results and outcomes of own research and audits locally, nationally or internationally as appropriate in order to advance the safe, clinically effective and cost effective use of drugs To liaise with clinical trial nursing and pharmacy staff with regards to monitoring and continuing supply of trial medicines to patients Support the development and evaluation of local initiatives in the delivery of medicines optimisation Person Specification

Qualifications, Experience and Skills

Essential

Registered Pharmacist (1 year competency assessed and examined professional registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council) Postgraduate Certificate in Pharmacy Practice or equivalent qualification

Desirable

Registered Independent Prescriber or willingness to complete Previous specialist clinical experience in relevant area Postgraduate Diploma in Pharmacy Practice or equivalent qualification

---