Principal Clinical Pharmacist

Job summary

Job Title: Principal Clinical Pharmacist

Specialist Frailty - Proactive Care and Urgent Community Response Domiciliary Medicines Optimisation

Department: Medicines Management Department

Locations: Choice of an office base in West Sussex Littlehampton, Worthing, Pulborough, Steyning or Lancing

Salary: NHS AfC Band 8b, hrs/week

The role: Thisexcitingrole will lead, manage and develop the pharmacy input to the Proactive Care and Urgent Community Response services, providing the clinical leadership, supervision and support required including to deliver patient facing clinical medication reviews, to prescribe and to support the development of other pharmacists as a Designated Prescribing Practitioner and educational supervisor.

This role will strategically and operationally lead on ensuring high quality, safe, comprehensive pharmaceutical /medicines optimisation services to Proactive Care, Coastal West Sussex (CWS) and Urgent Community Response (UCR) in Brighton and Hove (B&H),ensuring these pharmacy services are delivered efficiently with effective prioritisation, and demonstrating this with service metrics and ongoing quality improvement.

The role will actively contribute to therelevant governance, quality & safety meetings within SCFT, and help deliver the medicines safety agenda within Proactive care CWS and UCR with regards to medicines and pharmacy.

Main duties of the job

a) Responsible for strategically leading the pharmacy element for proactive care in Coastal West Sussex and UCR in Brighton & Hove

b) Responsible and accountable for delivering, managing and developing the pharmacy element of Proactive Care in Coastal West Sussex and Urgent Community Response (UCR) in Brighton and Hove.

c) Responsible for providing highly specialised pharmaceutical input into identified Proactive Care and UCR multi-disciplinary teams including communicating complex and sensitive information effectively and attend key multi-disciplinary meetings as appropriate

d) Leading in the promotion of quality, safe and cost-effective prescribing at an individual practitioner and multidisciplinary level, informed where possible by evidenced-based practice and national and local guidance, and ensure that prescribing conform to current legislation.

e) Work closely and collaboratively with health and social care professionals and managerial staff from both within The Trust but also from external organisations (, GP, community pharmacy, acute hospital, county council, mental health, care homes) to ensure patients receive the best care.

About us

We are the main provider of NHS community services across East and West Sussex. Our 6,000 staff serve a population of million providing essential medical, nursing, and therapeutic care to adults and children.

Our Trust vision is to provide excellent care at the heart of the community, helping people plan, manage, adapt to changes in their health, supporting avoidable hospital admissions and reducing hospital stay times.

We have opportunities for everyone across our wide variety of services including medical, clinical, support and corporate services.

Why work for us?

Positive 2022 NHS Staff Survey results, scoring highly in compassionate culture & leadership, and staff wellbeing support Variety of working environments across the community, in patients' homes, within our community hospitals and bases across the county Supportive flexible working patterns such as: part time, flexi time, annualised hours, and flexi retirement options Excellent training and development opportunities Research opportunities Cost-effective workplace nurseries in Crawley, Hove and Brighton Thriving BAME, Disability and Wellbeing, LGBT+ and Religion and Belief staff networks Level 3 accredited Disability Confident Leader, committed to creating inclusive workplaces Veteran Aware Trust, achieving accreditation from Veterans Covenant Healthcare Alliance (VCHA) Located in stunning Sussex, with easy access to the South Downs and the coast Access to a wide range of benefits and discounts for NHS staff Job description

Job responsibilities

The person: We are looking to appoint a highly enthusiastic, committed and self-motivated Principal Clinical Pharmacist with strong leadership qualities and an understanding of medicine optimisation issues in the frail elderly. You will need to be able to prioritise work, while leading your team and ensure delivery against the key performance indicators to demonstrate the difference made to patient care and patient outcomes.

Applicants with the right experience and skills are welcomed from all branches of pharmacy practice. Informal discussions prior to application or interview are encouraged.

The skills: A warmth and empathy is essential, as are clinical and technical skills around medicines optimisation. An ability to be self-motivated to learn and to manage you and your teams workflow is a prerequisite. You must have skills to lead, manage and support your team and interact effectively with external partners such as GPs and those within the MDT.

Post qualification experience relevant to the post and a proven track record of successful implementation of medicines optimisation is desirable.

Demonstrated, robust relevant CPD, such as chronic conditions in older people and prescribing, is essential.

Ensure appropriate Key Performance Indicator (KPI) and service metrics reporting to demonstrate service achievements is provided to the MMT and Trust Service leads through annual service reports for the pharmacy elements of Proactive care CWS and UCR B&H.

Responsible for ensuring that the pharmacy elements of Proactive Care CWS and UCR B&H is underpinned by appropriate and robust governance structures that comply with Trust polices and guidelines.

Person Specification

Qualifications and/or professional registration

Essential

Pharmacy degree (Currently 4 years master's course) & 1 year pre-registration. Registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC). Diploma in clinical pharmacy or equivalent evidence experience. Professional experience in more than one healthcare setting (including primary, community or secondary care settings). Independent Non-Medical prescriber and annotated on GPhC register. Prior experience of working with elderly care.

Desirable

Prior experience of working with elderly care. Practice and Educational Supervisor course or similar (, HEE) Completed formal courses in adult frailty, mental health, learning disability, dementia, older peoples' medicines, structured medication reviews, shared decision making (, CPPE) Formal qualification in managing people and resources Post graduate Masters qualification in clinical pharmacy

Experience

Essential

At least 5 years post-registration experience with a minimum of 3 years of relevant experience as a clinical pharmacist prescriber. Experience of working in multi-disciplinary teams and with a wide range of healthcare professionals. Experience in clinical pharmacy working with older people/ adult frailty /dementia Experience of leading undertaking clinical audits. Full audit cycle. Plan, organise the collection of data, analyse data, findings, recommendations, and audit report writing. Follow up of actions and re-audit. Knowledge of primary/secondary care interface issues. Prior experience of managing pharmacy staff including being responsible for setting objectives and appraisals. Prior experience of delivering, planning, and coordinating a clinical pharmacy service or component of pharmacy service. Experience of working in direct patient facing clinical pharmacy roles. Evidence of proactive approach to problem solving. Clinical and pharmaceutical knowledge, including an understanding of complex medication regimens and high-risk medicines, interactions and potential problems associated with this.

Desirable

Experience of working in GP practices and/or familiar with some of the GP computer systems used such as TPP/SystmOne, Vision and EMIS, including building and running patient searches. Experience delivering Structured Medication Reviews.

Skills and knowledge

Essential

Advanced pharmaceutical care knowledge and skills. Able to demonstrate skills in using shared decision making and personalised care in practice (including using different tools and techniques) for the benefit of patients. Able to deliver and manage a clinical pharmacy service to ensure it deliver according to agreed targets/performance. Ability to challenge and negotiate effectively on difficult issues including actions required to achieve best practice , with GPs & consultants who are external to the Trust. Able to provide and receive highly complex information, undertake analysis and interpreting these to provide advice and recommendation on medicines including where information may be lacking or where clinical opinion differs. Ability to assimilate, analyse and interpret complex data to assess risks and improve patient safety. Teaching and training skills Expertise on legal issues related to medicines in different care settings. Critical appraisal skills. Ability to influence and effectively communicate with medical prescribers and non-medical prescribers, where these may be from external organisations. Ability to develop effective working relationships at all levels and across organisational boundaries. Able to balance between clinical and pharmaceutical knowledge and effectiveness, safety, and cost of medicines. Ability to deal with ambiguity and uncertainty. Computer skills including. word-processing, spreadsheets, presentations, GP IT systems. Excellent written and verbal communication skills. Able to demonstrate resource management and System Leadership skills. Be able to work independently and part of a team. Be responsible and accountable for own professional actions.

Other requirements

Essential

Willing to travel extensively in particular within West Sussex and Brighton & Hove area

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