Primary Care Pharmacist

Job summary

This is an exciting opportunity for the successfulcandidate to join the Haywards Heath Villages Primary Care Network (PCN) teamin supporting a wide range of patients of all post is part of the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme for Primary CareNetworks funded by NHS England and includes funded access to the ClinicalPharmacist Training Pathway for any further modules required to complete thepathway.

The successful candidate will be based mostly atone practice site but there will be an expectation that cross-cover be providedto all four network practices as needed.

Main duties of the job

The post holder is a Pharmacist,who acts within their professional boundaries, supporting and working alongsidea team of pharmacists in general practice. The post holder will work as part ofa multi-disciplinary team in a patient-facing role. The post holder will takeresponsibility for areas of chronic disease management within the practice andundertake clinical medication reviews to proactively manage patients withcomplex polypharmacy.

The post holder will provideprimary support to general practice staff with regards to prescription andmedication queries. They will help support the repeat prescription system, dealwith acute prescription requests, and medicines reconciliation on transfer ofcare 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 will provideclinical leadership on medicines optimisation and quality improvement, managesome aspects of the quality and outcomes framework and enhanced services andcontribute to the delivery of the local medicines optimisation strategy.

The post holder will ensure thatthe practice integrates with community and hospital pharmacy to help utiliseskill mix, improve patient outcomes, ensure better access to healthcare andhelp manage workload.

About us

Alliancefor Better Care CIC is a GP Federation that unites 47 NHS GP practices across12 Primary Care Networks in Sussex and Surrey. We support our Primary Carecolleagues as well as their patients, to transform how healthcare is managedwithin the community.

As a membership organisation, our focus is to work in partnership with ourmembers and help them to improve the provision of General Practices in thelocal area.

We work with and listen to our GP Practices, PCNs, Hospitals, CommunityOrganisations and the Third Sector. These vital partnerships ensure that,together, we deliver a truly integrated approach that offers the support andexpertise needed to effectively serve our communities.

Haywards Heath Villages PCN is an NHS Collaboration between four GP Practices Cuckfield MedicalPractice & Vale Surgery, Lindfield Medical Centre, Ouse Valley Practice andNorthlands Wood Practice - working together to provide enhanced accessservices.

Our surgery teams work closely, sharing expertise andresources to develop new services. Our vision is to continue to improve thequality of care that we provide in alignment with the needs of our patientpopulation.

Our PCN builds on the existing primary careservices and enables a greater provision of proactive, personalised and moreintegrated health and social care. We are supported by practitioners in additionalroles who allow us to create bespoke multi-disciplinary teams based on theneeds of our local population.

Job description

Job responsibilities

Primary Duties and Areas of Responsibility (from start of post)

Patient facing long-term condition clinics:

See (where appropriate) patientswith single or multiple medical problems where medicine optimisation isrequired ( COPD, asthma). Review the on-going need for eachmedicine, a review of monitoring needs and an opportunity to support patientswith their medicines taking ensuring they get the best use of their medicines( medicines optimisation). Make appropriate recommendations to GPs andother members of the MDT for medicine improvement.

Patient facing Clinical Medication Review:

Undertakeclinical medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations fornurses and/or GPs on prescribing and monitoring.

Patient facing medicines support:

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

Telephone medicines support:

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

Medicineinformation to practice staff and patients:

Actas a source of medicines information for all of the practice team and patients,(such as around doses, side effects, adverse events, possible alternatives( around out of stocks) Suggesting and recommending solutions

Managementof medicines at discharge from hospital:

Toreconcile medicines following discharge from hospitals, intermediate care andinto care homes, including identifying and rectifying unexplained changes andworking with patients and community pharmacists to ensure patients receive themedicines they need post discharge. Set up and manage systems to ensure continuity of medicines supply tohighrisk groups of patients( those with medicine compliance aids or those in care homes).

Signposting:

Ensurethat patients are referred to the appropriate healthcare professional for theright care. Ensuring that the addition of the pharmacist to the clinical teamresults in a reduction in workload for other clinicians

Repeat Prescribing:

Produceand implement a practice repeat prescribing policy in line with therecommendations Medicines Management Team.Manage the repeat prescribing reauthorisation process by reviewingpatient requests for repeat prescriptions and reviewing medicines reachingreview dates and flagging up those needing a review. Ensure patients have appropriate monitoringtests in place when required

Frailty:

Supportthe contractual requirements to support frail patients with their medicationincluding medication review and some patient identification ( patients withproblematic polypharmacy).

Medicinesquality improvement:

Undertakeclinical audits of prescribing in areas directed by the GPs, feedback theresults and implement changes in conjunction with the practice team.

Implementationof local and national guidelines and formulary recommendations:

Workwith MMT to support the implementation of local and national guidelinesincluding NICE, Surrey PAD etc. Liaisewith hospital colleagues where prescribing needs to be returned to specialists

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. Toprovide specialist knowledge on all public health programmes available to thegeneral public

Medicines Safety:

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

Role May Evolve to Include:

Unplanned Hospital Admissions

Reviewthe use of medicines most commonly associated with unplanned hospitaladmissions and readmissions through audit and individual patient reviews. Put in place changes to reduce theprescribing of these medicines to highriskpatient groups.

Managingof common/minor/self-limiting ailments

Managingcaseload of patients with common/minor/self-limiting ailments Signposting to community pharmacy andreferring to GPs or other healthcare professionals where appropriate

Please see full Job Description for further information.

Person Specification

Professional Registration

Essential

Mandatory registration with General Pharmaceutical Council

Desirable

Membership of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society A member of or working towards Faculty membership of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society

Other

Essential

Self-motivation Adaptable Full driving license

Qualifications

Essential

Undergraduate degree in Pharmacy (MPharm)

Desirable

Clinical diploma Postgraduate Certificate in Pharmacy Practice Independent Prescriber

Leadership and Management

Essential

Demonstrates understanding of the Pharmacy role in governance and is able to implement this appropriately within the workplace Demonstrates understanding of, and contributes to organisational vision Demonstrates ability to improve quality within limitations of service Reviews progress and develops clear plans to achieve results within priorities set by others Demonstrates ability to motivate self to achieve goals Demonstrates understanding of the implications of national priorities for the team and/or service Demonstrates understanding of the process for effective resource utilisation Demonstrates understanding of, and conforms to, relevant standards of practice

Desirable

Demonstrates ability to identify and resolve risk management issues according to policy/protocol

Research and evaluation

Essential

Demonstrates ability to critically evaluate and review literature Demonstrates ability to identify where there is a gap in the evidence base to support practice Demonstrates ability to generate evidence suitable for presentation at local level Demonstrates ability to apply the research evidence base into working practice Demonstrates understanding of the principles of research governance Demonstrates ability to work as a member of the research team

Skills, Knowledge and Experience

Essential

Minimum of 2 years' experience post-qualification In depth therapeutic and clinical knowledge and understanding of the principles of evidence-based healthcare Good knowledge of service developments in medicines, prescribing, NHS policy and other relevant policy directives Good understanding of Primary Care prescribing, concepts of rational prescribing and strategies for improving prescribing Ability to solve problems effectively and timely and identifies deviations from the normal pattern and when to refer to GPs and other members of the MDT when appropriate Excellent understanding and implementation of legal, ethical, professional and organisational policies/procedures and codes of conduct Good understanding of patient centred care and impact on care quality and outcomes Good understanding of patients' role in decisions about prescribed medicines and supporting adherence as per NICE guidance Excellent interpersonal, influencing and negotiating skills Demonstrate the ability to communicate complex and sensitive information in an understandable form to a variety of audiences ( patients) Ability to plan, prioritise, manage, monitor, advise and review clinical and general medicine optimisation issues in core areas for long term conditions Good IT skills Ability to obtain and analyse complex technical information Ability to work under pressure and challenging situations to meet deadlines Produce timely and informative reports Experience of multi-disciplinary team working Experience of committees/working groups Drug information experience Experience in writing complex and high quality reports Experience in audit, research and analysis of highly complex information related to improving clinical quality

Desirable

Experience in supervising staff Experience of independent patient consultation, review and recommendations/prescribing

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