PCN Clinical Pharmacist

Job summary

An exciting opportunity has arisen within the East Warrington Primary Care Network (PCN) for an enthusiastic and forward-thinking Clinical Pharmacistto join the team. The role would be based at Birchwood Medical Centre, Warrington.

The clinical pharmacy rolewithin Primary Care pro-actively helps patients stay safe and well and out ofhospital, as well as helping reduce the demands on General Practice.

The role will provideclinical medicines expertise in General Practice with a broad range ofactivities including medication queries, medicines reconciliation at theinterface, structured medication reviews and medicines optimisation projects.The Clinical Pharmacist supports patients to get the best outcomes from theirmedicines by identifying and addressing medicines related issues.

This role is pivotal to improving the quality of care and operationalefficiencies so requires good motivation and passion to deliver an excellentservice within a General Practice environment.

This is an excellent opportunity for an enthusiastic and motivated clinical pharmacist with a strong commitment to good patient care and an ability to work as part of a well organised practice team.

Main duties of the job

Job Summary:

To improve patients health outcomes and theefficiency of the Primary Care team by providing direct, accessible and timely clinical medicines expertise, by working as part of a Multi-DisciplinaryPractice Team. To pro-actively transfer workload relating to medicinesoptimisation issues from Practice clinical staff to improve patient care,safety, thus freeing up Practice clinical staff to spend more time on otherclinical care: To provide relevant support to the primary careteam To promote safe, evidence based, cost effectiveprescribing in line with NHS Cheshire and Merseyside requirements To provide expert pharmaceutical advice to the Practice and the Medicines Optimisation Team To provide prescribing support to the Practice and team members in areas such as:- Hospital discharge letters Face to Face medication reviews and follow up Implementation of prescribing changes Review of repeat prescribing Audit

About us

East Warrington PCN is one offive PCNs within Warrington, Cheshire. We provide primary care services to 31,610 patients, across three GP practices:Birchwood Medical Centre, Fearnhead Cross Medical Centre and Padgate MedicalCentre.

This role will primarily be based at Birchwood Medical Centre. We operate from well equipped, purpose built premises located on the outskirts of Warrington, close to both the M62 and M6 motorways.

Job description

Job responsibilities

Role Delivery Specifics:

Management of medicines at discharge from hospital

To reconcile medicines following discharge from hospitals, intermediate care and into care homes, including identifying and rectifying unexplained changes and working with patients and community pharmacists to ensure patients receive the medicines they need post discharge.

Set up and manage systems to ensure continuity of medicines supply to high-risk groups of patients ( with medicine compliance aids or those in care homes).

Unplanned hospital admissions

Review the use of medicines most commonly associated with unplanned hospital admissions and readmissions through audit and individual patient reviews. Put in place changes to reduce the prescribing of these medicines to high-risk patient groups.

Repeat prescribing

Produce and implement a practice repeat prescribing policy.

Manage the repeat prescribing reauthorisation process by reviewing patient requests for repeat prescriptions and reviewing medicines reaching review dates and flagging up those needing a review to the GP.

Managing requests from external agencies appliance contractors and acute prescriptions not on repeat

To assess clinically for appropriate re-issue and manage request as per usual practice procedure.

If an inappropriate requests is received, patients are telephoned to discuss/check symptoms, or an appointment booked with the appropriate member of the clinical team/ yourself for a review.

Telephone and patient facing medicines support

Provide a telephone help line for patients with questions, queries and concerns about their medicines. Hold clinics for patients requiring face-to-face medicines use reviews (MURs) advise about medicines and adherence support.

Medication review

Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for the GP on prescribing and monitoring.

Care home medication reviews

Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for the GP on prescribing and monitoring. Work with care home staff to improve safety of medicines ordering and administration.

Domiciliary clinical medication review

Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for the GP on prescribing and monitoring.

Long-term condition clinic

See patients with single or multiple medical problem(s) where medicine optimisation is required ( COPD, asthma, diabetes). Make recommendations to GPs for medicine improvements.

Management of common/minor/self-limiting ailments

Manage patients with common/minor/self-limiting ailments while working within scope of practice and limits of competence. Signpost to community pharmacy and refer to GPs or other healthcare professionals where appropriate.

Differential/ Un-differential diagnosis

Manage own case load for patients with long term and/or acute/common conditions and implement own prescribing changes (as an independent prescriber) while remaining within scope of practice and limits of competence. Referring to GP and/or other healthcare professionals where appropriate.

Review the on-going need for any medicine/device(s) prescribed, monitoring needs and to support patients ensuring they get the best use of their medicines/device(s).

Service development

Contribute pharmaceutical advice for the development and implementation of new services that have medicinal components ( advise on treatment pathways and patient information leaflets).

Care Quality Commission

Work with the practice manager and GPs to ensure the practice is compliant with CQC standards where medicines are involved. Undertake risk assessment and management and ensure compliance with medicines legislation.

Public health

To contribute to public health campaigns, including flu vaccinations, and adult immunisation programmes.

Cost saving programmes

Undertake changes to medicines (switches) designed to save on medicine costs where a medicine or product with lower acquisition cost is now available.

Medicine information to practice staff and patients

Answers all medicine related enquiries from GPs, other practice staff and patients with queries about medicines.

Information management

Analyse, interpret and present medicines data to highlight issues and risks to support decision making.

Medicines quality improvement

Undertake simple audits of prescribing in areas directed by the GPs, feedback the results and implement changes in conjunction with the practice team.

Training

Provide education and training to primary healthcare team on therapeutics and medicines optimisation.

Implementation of local and national guidelines and formulary recommendations

Monitor practice prescribing against the RAG list and make recommendations to GPs for medicines that should be prescribed by hospital doctors (red drugs) or subject to shared care (amber drugs). Assist practices in setting and maintaining a practice formulary that is aligned with the Pan Mersey formulary and DNP lists and is hosted on the practices computer system.

Auditing practices compliance against NICE technology assessment guidance.

Provide newsletters or bulletins on important prescribing messages.

Medicines safety

Implement changes to medicines that result from MHRA alerts, product withdrawal and other local and national guidance.

Support the practice in adopting local and national medication safety strategies such as PINCER.

Primary Care Network Agreement

This role is part of the additional role reimbursement scheme (ARRS), led by NHS England. ARRS roles are recruited to support East Warrington Primary Care Network which comprises three GP Practices. Each individual Practice employs ARRS staff, however on occasions the Network may experience a short staff supply and therefore to ensure business continuity, you may be asked to work across the other Practices within the PCN to ensure a fair allocation and to ensure business runs smoothly for our patients. This would usually be for a short period of time until PCN business resumes to normal.

Person Specification

Experience

Essential

An appreciation of the nature of GPs and general practices. Excellent interpersonal, influencing and negotiating skills. Excellent written and verbal communication skills. Demonstrate the ability to communicate complex and sensitive information in an understandable form to a variety of audiences ( patients). Is able to plan, manage, monitor, advise and review general medicine optimisation issues in core areas for long term conditions. Good IT skills. Able to obtain and analyse complex technical information. Recognises priorities when problem solving and identifies deviations from the normal pattern and is able to refer to seniors or GPs when appropriate. Able to work under pressure and to meet deadlines. Produce timely and informative reports. Work effectively independently and as a team member. Demonstrate accountability for delivering professional expertise and direct service provision. Self-motivating and ability to motivate and engage with others.

Desirable

Minimum of 2 years post qualification experience. In depth therapeutic and clinical knowledge and understanding of the principles of evidence-based healthcare. An appreciation of the nature of primary care prescribing, concepts of rational prescribing and strategies for improving prescribing. Gain acceptance for recommendations and influence / motivate / persuade the audience to comply with the recommendations / agreed course of action where there may be significant barriers.

Qualifications

Essential

Mandatory registration with General Pharmaceutical Council of GB Masters degree in pharmacy (MPharm )

Desirable

Membership of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society A member of or working towards Faculty membership of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society Independent prescriber or is currently working towards gaining an independent prescribing qualification Post Grad Diploma in Clinical Pharmacy and or NHS England GP Practice Pathway accreditation (There will be the requirement to complete this)

---