Job summary
The purpose of this role is to provide a comprehensive Clinical pharmacist service to patients of North Oxfordshire Rural Alliance Primary Care Network (PCN).
This role is pivotal to improving quality of care and operational efficiencies so requires motivation and passion to deliver an excellent service within general practice.
Main duties of the job
The post holder is a pharmacist, who acts within their professional boundaries, and will work as part of a multi-disciplinary team in a patient-facing role. In this role they will be supported by a senior clinical pharmacist who will develop and mentor them.
The post holder will take responsibility for areas of chronic disease management within the Practice(s) and undertake clinical medication reviews to proactively manage patients with complex polypharmacy, especially for older people, people in residential care homes, hospital discharges and those with multiple co-morbidities.
The post holder will assist the Senior Clinical Pharmacist (SCP) and team to provide clinical leadership on medicines optimisation and quality improvement and manage some aspects of the quality and outcomes framework and enhanced services.
The post holder will work with the SCP and team to ensure that the practice integrates with community and hospital pharmacy to help utilise skill mix, improve patient outcomes, ensure better access to healthcare and help manage workload. The role is pivotal to improving the quality of care and operational efficiencies so requires motivation and passion to deliver excellent service within general practice.
The post holder will be supported to develop their role to become an independent prescriber on completion of the CPPE pathway.
About us
Come and join our incredibly friendly PCN, nestled near to and within theCotswold countryside in an area of outstanding natural beauty. NORA PCNconsists of five rural surgeries. Collectively, we serve a population of approximately 51,000 patients. We have diversepatient population with a high proportion of elderly patients.
We have afantastic PCN Clinical Pharmacy team one of the largest in Oxfordshire -which includes a Senior Clinical Pharmacist, six Clinical Pharmacists and a PCNPharmacy technician. The team have monthly group teaching and discussionsessions together and regular social events too.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Medicine information to PCN, practice staff and patients
Answer medicine related enquiries from PCN, GPs & practice staff, other healthcare teams ( community pharmacy) and patients with queries about medicines. Suggest and recommend solutions. Provide follow up for patients to monitor the effect of any changes.
Patient facing clinical medication review
Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients with multimorbidity and polypharmacy and implement own prescribing changes (as an independent prescriber) and order relevant monitoring tests.
Review the on-going need for each medicine, a review of monitoring needs and an opportunity to support patients with their medicines taking ensuring they get the best use of their medicines ( medicines optimisation).
Patient facing medicines support
Provide patient facing clinics for those with questions, queries and concerns about their medicines in the practice as appropriate and with safety in mind during the pandemic.
Telephone medicines support
Provide a telephone help line for patients with questions, queries and concerns about their medicines.
Patient facing care home / residential clinical medication reviews
Manage own caseload of care home residents. Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients with multimorbidity and polypharmacy and implement own prescribing changes (as an independent prescriber) and order relevant monitoring tests.
Work with care home staff to improve safety of medicines ordering and administration.
Patient facing domiciliary / home visits
Manage own caseload of vulnerable housebound patients at risk of hospital admission and harm from poor use of medicines.
Implement own prescribing changes (as an independent prescriber) and ordering of monitoring tests when appropriately qualified to do so.
Attend and refer patients to multidisciplinary case conferences. Identifying key areas of need for vulnerable patients and formulating care plans.
Service development
To work with the SCP and team to develop and manage new services across the PCN that are built around new medicines or NICE guidance, where new medicine / recommendations allow the development of a new care pathway ( new oral anticoagulants for stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation).
Risk stratification
Assist with design, development and implementation of computer searches to identify cohorts of patients at high risk of harm from medicines across the PCN.
Assist the SCP with the management of risk stratification tools on behalf of the PCN.
Work with patients, SCP and CPs across the PCN and primary care teams to minimise risks through medicines optimisation.
Information management
To assist SCP and CP team to analyse, interpret and present medicines and risks to support decision-making across the PCN. Use of data to highlight issues.
Medicines Quality Improvement programmes
Work with the SCP and CP team to identify and provide support on areas of prescribing and medicines optimisation, including QOF and QI requirements.
Conduct appropriate clinical audits and projects or work with colleagues such as SCP, CPs, GP registrars, and practice managers across the PCN etc.
Present results and provide leadership on suggested changes. Assist CP team to contribute to national and local research initiatives.
Care Quality Commission
Assist SCP and CP team provide leadership to the general practice team to ensure the practice is compliant with CQC standards where medicines are involved.
Undertake appropriate risk assessments and management and ensure compliance with medicines legislation.
Implementation of local and national guidelines and formulary recommendations
Assist with monitoring practice prescribing against the local health economys RAG list for medicines that should be prescribed by hospital doctors (red drugs) or subject to shared care (amber drugs).
Liaise directly with hospital colleagues where prescribing needs to be returned to specialists. Assist practices in setting and maintaining a practice formulary that is hosted on the practices computer system.
Work with SCP and CP team to suggest and develop computer decision support tools to help remind prescribers about the agreed formulary choice and local recommendations.
Assist SCP and CP team with auditing at both practice and PCN level compliance against NICE technology assessment guidance. Provide updates on PCN intranet on important prescribing messages to improve prescribers knowledge and work with the team to develop and implement other techniques known to influence implementation of evidence such as audit and feedback.
Supervision
Work with SCP to ensure that PCN Pharmacy Technicians also receive appropriate supervision, mentoring, appraisal process and access to relevant training & development programmes.
Education and Training
Assist SCP and CP team provide education and training to primary healthcare teams across the PCN on therapeutics and medicines optimisation.
Assist with providing training to visiting medical, nursing, pharmacy and other healthcare students where appropriate.
Public health
To assist SCP and CP team with supporting public health campaigns across the PCN.
To assist SCP and CP team with providing specialist knowledge on all public health programmes available to general public across the PCN.
Unplanned hospital admissions
Devise and implement practice searches to identify cohorts of patients most likely to be at risk of an unplanned admission and readmissions from medicines.
Work with case managers, multidisciplinary (health and social care) review teams, hospital colleagues and virtual ward teams to manage medicines-related risk for readmission and patient harm.
Put in place changes to reduce the prescribing of these medicines to high-risk patient groups.
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 manage these changes without referral to a GP.
Perform a clinical medication review, produce a post discharge medicines care plan including dose titration and booking of follow up tests and working with patients and community pharmacists to ensure patients receive the medicines they need post discharge 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 ( those with medicine compliance aids or those in care homes).
Work in partnership with hospital colleagues ( care of the elderly doctors and clinical pharmacists) to proactively manage patients at high risk of medicine related problems before they are discharged to ensure continuity of care.
Telephone triage
Ensure that patients are referred to the appropriate healthcare professional for the appropriate level of care within an appropriate period of time pathology test results, common / minor ailments, acute conditions, long term condition reviews etc.
Other information
While we are happy to consider flexible working, PCNs need to provide patients with enhanced access and you may therefore on occasion be required to work weekday evenings 18 : 30 20 : 00.
Person Specification
Experience
Essential
Desirable
Qualifications
Essential
Desirable
Leadership
Essential
Desirable
Management
Essential
Desirable
Education Training and Development
Essential
Desirable