Job summary

North Cotswold Primary Care Network has an exciting opportunity fortalented, enthusiastic self motivated clinical pharmacist to join oursupportive multi disciplinary team. Ideally you will be an independentprescriber but if not we will support you to become one. Do you seek tocontribute to better management of patients so they can stay out of hospitaland feel supported? Do you want to be a key member of our PCN in ensuring ourprescribing is of the highest quality, safety and value and that medicines useis optimised for and with our patients? Are you keen to build an innovativerole within the primary care setting? Then join our North Cotswold Primary CareNetwork and support us providing Primary Care of the highest quality, safetyand value.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will work within their clinical competencies as part ofan mdt to provide expertise in medicines management, structured medicationreviews, manage long term conditions, proactive management of patients withcomplex poly pharmacy, on transfer of care, systems for safer prescribing,manage repeat prescription authorisation and reauthorisation, acuteprescription requests, while addressing both the public health and social needsof patients in the North Cotswold PCN. Clinical pharmacists will have a keyrole in supporting delivery of the new Care home DES. For the new StructuredMedications Review and Optimisation requirements this will include tacklingover-medication of patients, including inappropriate use of antibiotics,withdrawing medicines no longer needed through NHS-led programmes such as lowpriority prescribing and medicines optimisation more widely. For EnhancedHealth in Care Homes, residents will benefit from regular clinical-pharmacy ledmedicines reviews.

About us

Our PCN is located in the beautiful rural setting of North Cotswolds andwe have approximately 31,000 patients. We have a network of clinicalpharmacists and pharmacy technicians and all new recruits will be welcome asintegral part of this team. Together the team will develop medicinesoptimisation using a range of innovative methods including working with newconsultation technologies. They will perform medication reviews of patientswith poly-pharmacy especially older people, patients in care homes and thosewith multiple co-morbidities. The candidate will have to undertake a formaltraining on the Primary Care Pharmacy Education pathway (unless you havealready completed this). We will support all successful candidates through thispathway. You will receive supervision, training and mentoring from our fabulousSenior clinical pharmacist (where required) and benefit from direct mentoringwith a GP based in your host Practice

Job description

Job responsibilities

To work as part of a multi-disciplinary team in a patient facingrole to clinically assess and treat patients using expert knowledge ofmedicines for specific disease areas.

Care Home Medication Reviews : Undertake clinical medicationreviews with patients and implement own prescribing changes (as an independentprescriber) and order relevant monitoring tests. (if not an independentprescriber; produce recommendations for the senior clinical pharmacist, nursesor GPs on prescribing and monitoring). Work with care home staff to improvesafety of medicines ordering and administration.

Undertake clinical medication reviews to proactively managepatients with complex poly pharmacy, especially the elderly, patients who arehousebound, patients in care homes, those with multiple long term conditions (in particular frailty, COPD and asthma)and patients with learning disabilitiesor autism (through STOMP - Stop Over Medication Programme).

Through structured medication reviews support patients withtheir medicine taking, ensuring they get the best use of their medicines (medicine optimisation) reduce waste and promote self-care. Make appropriaterecommendations to Senior Pharmacists or GPs for medicine improvement

Provide specialist expertise in the use of medicines whilehelping to address both the public health and social care needs of patients andhelp in tackling inequalities

Provide leadership in person centred medicines optimisation(including ensuring prescribers in the practice conserve antibiotics in linewith local antimicrobial stewardship guidance) and quality improvement whilecontributing to the quality and outcomes framework and enhanced services.

Have a leadership role in supporting further integration ofgeneral practice with the wider healthcare teams (including community andhospital pharmacy) to help improve patient outcomes, ensure better access tohealth care and help manage general practice workload

Recognise the roles of other colleagues within the organisationand their role to patient care

Develop relationships and work closely with the pharmacistacross networks and the wider health system

Work closely with PCN practices, participating in practicemeetings, patient participation groups and other meetings to improve engagementor the role of clinical pharmacist within the PCN model and to promote issuesrelevant to role

Take a central role in the clinical aspects of share careprotocols, clinical research with medicines, liaison with specialistpharmacists (including mental health and reduction of inappropriateantipsychotic use in people with learning difficulties) liaison with communitypharmacists and anticoagulation.

Communicate effectively with patients and carers, recognisingthe need for alternative methods of communication to overcome different levelsof understanding, cultural background and preferred ways of communicating

Adhere to quality governance systems and processes across thefive PCN practices and their activities, managing data collection to supportdata requirements / claims, ensuring information governance standards areimplemented and maintained

To be responsible for the organisation and planning of ownworkload to meet set deadlines

To utilise PCN practices clinical systems to conduct prescribingaudits (EMIS / SystmOne)

To undertake, participate and share the outcomes of clinicalaudits to facilitate improvement and changes in practice

Handle function specific information, which may be sensitive,complex or confidential and appropriately recording, transferring and / orcoordinating such information in accordance with the Data Protection Act;Caldicott Guidelines and the Confidentiality Code of Conduct

Ensure that all major MHRA drug alerts, where appropriate andwithin level of competence, are acted upon within practices over an appropriatetime frame and to advise on any medication changes that occur as a result

To undertake learning and development to ensure the requiredknowledge and skills for practice-based work

Contribute to the achievement and maintenance of CQCregistration status in the five PCN practices

Provide leadership and contribute to training and support of PCNpractice dispensers and pharmacy technicians

Undertake any other additional duties appropriate to the skillsand competencies of the post holder and grade of the post as new prioritiescome along in the changing NHS

Technical and administrative :

Working with the PCN multi-disciplinary team to ensure efficientmedicines optimisation, including implementing efficient ordering and returnprocesses and reducing wastage

Assist the PCN practices with the appropriate monitoring andmanagement of their prescribing budgets

Liaise with other stakeholders in the supply chain such ascommunity pharmacist and appliance contractors to handle queries and managesupply problems

Support practices providing training and support on the legal,safe and secure handling of medicines including the implementation of theElectronic Prescription Service (EPS)

Support the organisation and overseeing of repeat prescribing,repeat dispensing, electronic prescribing and medication review systems

Support quality improvement measures and contribute to theQuality Outcome Framework and enhanced services undertaking clinical auditswhere required

Support the implementation of national prescribing policies andguidance within PCN practices

Assist with delivery of medicines optimisation incentive schemesby undertaking patient safety audits and medication switches

Safety

Ensure all significant events are reported and discussed asappropriate contributing to investigation and root cause analysis andfacilitate full understanding of clinic governance requirements with the PCNpractices

Identify missing information, discrepancies and errors on repeatprescription requests and resolving them according to local policies andprocedures

Participate in serious incident investigations andmultidisciplinary care reviews

Report Adverse Drug Reactions and promote reporting by MDT

Monitoring high-risk medicines according to local systems andprocesses

Helping to ensure effective antimicrobial stewardship

Oversee use and monitoring of high risk drugs and drugs of abuse

Implement changes to medicines that result from Drug SafetyAlerts, product withdrawal and other local and national guidance

Training and Education Information

Provide education and training to primary healthcare teams ontherapeutics and medicines optimisation

Participate in MDT learning activities

Attend training courses identified as essential or beneficial tothe role and take responsibility for identifying own learning needs

Provide ad-hoc medicines advice to doctors and other clinicians

Horizon scan for new drugs and provide information to the MDT ontheir introduction

Provide advice on cost effective prescribing and supply issues

Enrolment on Primary Care Pharmacy Education Pathway (if notalready completed)

Enrolment on the Medicines Optimisation in Care Home (whereapplicable)

Enrolment or annual updates for non-medical prescribers course(as applicable)

Quality

Undertake PCN wide clinical audits of prescribing in areasdirected by the Clinical Director, feedback the results and implement changesin conjunction with the relevant practice teams

Undertake clinical audits of prescribing in the individualpractices as directed by the GPs, feedback results and implement changes inconjunction with the relevant practice team.

Contribute to the achievement of quality improvement initiativesand objectives, monitor against overall objectives

Inspire innovation amongst the team and stimulate improvementactivities

Ensure compliance with CQC and professional standards

Promote a culture of constant improvement and excellence

Understand a risk management approach and apply it allactivities

Contribute with integrity to team work focused on improvingquality within the practice

Contribute to the effectiveness of the team by reflecting on ownand team activities and making suggestions on ways to improve and enhance theteams performance

Conduct regular clinical audits and other improvement activities

Involvement in National and local quality improvement projects

Assess own performance and take accountability for own actions,either directly or under supervision

Taking responsibility for own development, learning andperformance and demonstrating skills and activities to others who areundertaking similar work.

Financial and Physical Resources

Support staff management and performance review

Support prescribing leads, pharmacy technicians etc., monitor expenditureand drug budget

Support Cost effective prescribing

Work effectively with individuals in other agencies to meetpatients needs

Effectively manage own time, workload and resources

Reduce waste

Ensure safe storage and security of medicines

Governance

Implementing policies and effective processes for medicinesgovernance including controlled drugs

Implementing policies and effective processes for repeatprescribing and repeat dispensing

Ensuring allergy information is accurate and correctlydocumented and that the information is shared with the wider multidisciplinaryteam including community pharmacy

Code of Conduct

Clinical Pharmacist must comply with the Code of ProfessionalConduct set by the General Pharmaceutical Council

Followall legal, ethical, professional and organisational policies / procedures andcodes of conduct

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Mandatory Professional registration with General Pharmaceutical Council An undergraduate Degree or equivalent in pharmacy and registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council Commitment towards continuing professional development in accordance with the requirements of the General Pharmaceutical Council

Desirable

Experience

Essential

Desirable

Qualities and attitude

Essential

Desirable