Clinical Pharmacist in General Practice

Job summary

West Hill Health is looking to recruit a Clinical Pharmacist to work in one of our GP Practices to join our team of 16 pharmacists . You will be working within one practice only, and some days could be worked remotely with agreement of your practice and completion of probation period. You will be part of a dynamic team of doctors, nurses, HCAs and phlebotomists. You will also be able to link in with a dynamic team of 16 pharmacists that work across our Primary Care Network. You will have support and clinical supervision from other GP Based Pharmacists, as well as being part of great and high performing general practice team. Position is eligible for CPPE (mandatory unless you have an exception) and funded prescribing courses. We look after 90,000 patients in a very diverse area in central london. Our practice and PCN has a very stable workforce with exceptional admin support.

Main duties of the job

Clinical Pharmacy working in General Practice.

Medication reviews and long term condition reviews .

We would love a pharmacist with a prescribing qualification but if they dont have one we would support further training.

About us

We are a dynamic, young and exciting large team in General Practice. We enable home working for some days for pharmacy team members. We highly value pharmacy team and have had pharmacy team members for over 7 years.

Job responsibilities

Clinical Practice Based Pharmacist

The post holder is apharmacist, who acts within their professional boundaries, supporting andworking alongside a team of pharmacists in general practice. This role is working within Grand Union HealthCentre. This role, is to work as part of the practice/s team, and to have thesupport of the other pharmcists within the Primary Care Network.

The post holder willwork as part of a multi-disciplinary team in a patient-facing role. The job will involve helping the entire primary careteam with chronic disease management. The pharmacist will undertake clinicalmedication reviews and proactively manage patients with complex poly-pharmacy.

The post holder willprovide primary support to general practice staff with regards to prescriptionand medication queries. They will help support the repeat prescription 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 practice (s).

The post holder willprovide clinical leadership on medicines optimisation and quality improvementand manage some aspects of the quality and outcomes framework and enhancedservices which are commissioned by our CCG.

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

Primary Duties and Areasof Responsibility

Patient facingLong-term condition Clinics

Review (where appropriate) patients with single ormultiple medical problems where medicine

optimisation is required ( COPD, asthma) andestablish the on-going need for each medicine, a review of monitoring needs andan opportunity to support patients with their medicines taking ensuring theyget the best use of their medicines ( medicines optimisation). Thepharmacists will make appropriaterecommendations to the rest of the team including the GPs for medicine improvement.

Patient facing ClinicalMedication Review

Undertake clinical medication reviews with patientsand produce recommendations for prescribing and monitoring.

Patient facing medicinessupport Provide patient facing clinics for those with questions,queries and concerns about their medicines in the practice. These clinics willbe both face to face, video and telephone appointments.

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

Medicine information topractice staff and patients

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

( community pharmacy) and patients with queriesabout medicines. Suggesting and recommending solutions. Providing follow up forpatients to monitor the effect of any changes

Unplanned hospitaladmissions

Review the use of medicines most commonly associatedwith unplanned hospital admissions and

readmissions through audit and individual patient reviews.Put in place changes to reduce the prescribing of these medicines to highriskpatient groups.

Management of medicinesat discharge from hospital

To reconcile medicines following discharge from hospitals,intermediate care and into care homes,

including identifying and rectifying unexplained changesand working with patients and community

pharmacists to ensure patients receive the medicinesthey need post discharge. Set up and manage systems to ensure continuity of medicinessupply to highrisk groups of patients ( those with medicine complianceaids or those in care homes).

Repeat prescribing

Produce and implement a practice repeat prescribingpolicy. Manage the repeat prescribing reauthorisationprocess by reviewing patient requests for repeat prescriptions and reviewingmedicines reaching review dates and flagging up those needing a review. Ensurepatients have appropriate monitoring tests in place when required.

Information management Analyse,interpret and present medicines data to highlight issues and risks to supportdecision making.

Medicines qualityimprovement Undertake clinical audits of prescribing in areas directedby the GPs, feedback the results and implement changes in conjunction with thepractice team.

Medicines safety Implementchanges to medicines that result from MHRA alerts, product withdrawal and otherlocal and national guidance.

Implementation of localand national guidelines and formulary recommendations

Monitor practice prescribing against the localhealth economys RAG list and make recommendations to GPs for medicines thatshould be prescribed by hospital doctors (red drugs) or subject to shared care(amber drugs). Assist practices in seeing and maintaining a practice formularythat is hosted on the practices computer system. Auditing practicescompliance against NICE

technology assessment guidance. Provide newslettersor bulletins on important prescribing messages.

Education and Training Provideeducation and training to primary healthcare team on therapeutics and medicinesoptimisation.

Care Quality Commission Workwith the general practice team to ensure the practice is compliant with CQCstandards where medicines are involved.

Public health Tosupport public health campaigns. To provide specialist knowledge on all publichealth programmes available to the general public. Flu vaccinations andsmoking cessation

Collaborative WorkingRelationships

Recognises the roles of othercolleagues within the organisation and their role in patient care

Demonstrates use of appropriatecommunication to gain the co-operation of relevant stakeholders (includingpatients, senior and peer colleagues, and other professionals, otherNHS/private organisations CCGs)

Demonstrates ability to work as amember of a team

Is able to recognise personallimitations and refer to more appropriate colleague(s)

Actively work toward developingand maintaining effective working relationships both within and outside thepractice and locality

Foster and maintain strong linkswith all services across the PCN

Explores the potential forcollaborative working and takes opportunities to initiate and sustain suchrelationships

Demonstrates ability to integrategeneral practice with community and hospital pharmacy teams

Liaises with CCG colleaguesincluding CCG Pharmacists on prescribing related matters to ensure consistencyof patient care and benefit

Liaises with other stakeholders asneeded for the collective benefit of patients including but not limited to PatientsGP, nurses and other practice staff, Otherhealthcare professionals including CCG pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, optometrists,dentists, health and social care teams and dieticians etc. Locality / GPprescribing lead Locality managers Community nurses and other allied healthprofessionals Community and hospital pharmacy teams Hospital staff withresponsibilities for prescribing and medicines optimisation

Knowledge, Skills andExperience Required

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

Have experience and an awarenessof common acute and long-term conditions that are likely to be seen in generalpractice

May hold or be working towards anindependent prescribing qualification.

Recognises priorities whenproblem-solving and identifies deviations from normal

patternand 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 decisionsabout prescribed medicines and supporting adherence as per NICE guidelines.

NB: it is anticipated level of qualification held may varyaccording to the level of position and the components of the role being carriedout.

Qualifications

Essential