Job description
North Buckinghamshire Primary Care Network
Clinical Pharmacist
Job Description
Title:
Clinical Pharmacist
Responsible to:
Ashcroft Surgery Practice Manager
Base:
Ashcroft Surgery - Stewkley Road, Wing LU7 0NE
Hours per week:
37.5 hours (part time considered)
Salary:
Agenda for Change - Band 7
Contract period:
Fixed term post for review March 2024
The North Bucks Primary Care Network (PCN) is made up of 4 GP practices based in the North of Buckinghamshire. These are 3W Health, Waddesdon Surgery, Edlesborough Surgery and Ashcroft Surgery. This role will be based at Ashcroft Surgery and remote working is available.
We are seeking an enthusiastic and forward-thinking Clinical Pharmacist to join our North Buckinghamshire Primary Care Network. We are looking for a pharmacist to develop and manage all aspects of medicines across the practice network. Working with highly skilled multi-disciplinary teams you will work in a patient facing role based in the surgeries. This is an evolving role with huge scope for development.
Primary Duties and Areas of Responsibility
- Clinical pharmacists will work as part of a multi-disciplinary team in a patient facing role to clinically assess and treat patients using their expert knowledge of medicines for specific disease areas
- They will be prescribers, or will be completing training to become prescribers, and will work with and alongside the general practice team. They will take responsibility for the care management of patients with chronic disease and undertake clinical medication reviews to proactively manage people with complex polypharmacy, especially the elderly, people in care homes, those with multiple co-morbidities (in particular frailty, COPD and asthma) and people with learning disabilities or autism (through STOMP – Stop Over Medication Programme)
- They will provide specialist expertise in the use of medicines whilst helping to address both the public health and social care needs of patients in the PCNs practices and to help tackling inequalities.
- Clinical Pharmacists will provide leadership on person centered medicines optimization (including ensuring prescribers in the practices conserve antibiotics in line with antimicrobial stewardship guidance) and quality improvement, whilst contributing to the quality and outcomes framework and enhanced services. Through structured medication reviews, clinical pharmacists will support patients to take their medicines and to get the best from them, reduce waste and promote self-care.
- Clinical pharmacists will have a leadership role in supporting further integration of general practices with the wider healthcare teams (including community and hospital pharmacy) to help improve patient outcomes, ensure better access to healthcare and to help manage general practice workload. The role has the potential to significantly improve quality of care and safety for patients.
- They will develop relationships and work closely with other pharmacy professionals across Primary Care Networks and the wider health and social care system
- Clinical pharmacists will take a central role in the clinical aspects of shared care protocols, clinical research with medicines, liaison with specialist pharmacists (including mental health and reduction of inappropriate antipsychotic use in people with learning difficulties) liaison with community pharmacists and anticoagulation.
All clinical pharmacists will be part of a professional clinical network and will have access to appropriate clinical supervision as outlined in the Network Contract DES guidance.
Patient facing long-term condition clinics
See (where appropriate) patients with single or multiple medical problems where medicine optimisation is required (e.g. COPD, asthma).
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 (i.e. medicines optimisation). Make appropriate recommendations to Senior Pharmacists or GPs for medicine improvement.
Patient facing clinical medication review
Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for senior clinical pharmacist, nurses and/or GP on prescribing and monitoring.
Patient facing care home medication reviews
Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for the senior clinical pharmacist, nurses or GPs on prescribing and monitoring. Work with care home staff to improve safety of medicines ordering and administration.
Patient facing domiciliary clinical medication review
Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for the senior clinical pharmacists, nurses and GPs on prescribing and monitoring. Attend and refer patients to multidisciplinary case conferences.
Management of common/minor/self-limiting ailments
Manage caseload of patients with common/minor/self-limiting ailments while working within a scope of practice and limits of competence.
Signpost to community pharmacy and refer to GPs or other healthcare professionals where appropriate
Patient facing medicines support
Provide patient facing clinics for those with medicines queries
Medicine information to practice staff and patients
Answer relevant medicine-related enquiries from GPs, other practice staff, other healthcare teams (e.g. community pharmacy) and patients with queries about medicines. Suggest and recommend solutions.
Provide follow up for patients to monitor the effect of any changes.
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.
Signposting
Ensure patients are referred to the appropriate healthcare professional for the appropriate level of care within an appropriate period of time.
Risk stratification
Identify cohorts of patients at high risk of harm from medicines through pre-prepared practice computer searches. This might include risks that are patient related, medicine related, or both.
Service development
Contribute pharmaceutical advice for the development and implementation of new services that have medicinal components.
Information management
Analyse, interpret and present medicines data to highlight issues and risks to support decision- making.
Medicines quality improvement
Undertake clinical audits of prescribing in areas directed by the Accountable Clinical Director (ACD) for the network, feedback results and implement changes in conjunction with the ACD.
Medicines safety
Implement changes to medicines that result from MHRA alerts, product withdrawal and other local and national guidance.
Implementation of local and national guidelines and formulary
Monitor practice prescribing against the local health economy’s 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 seeing and maintaining a practice formulary that is hosted on the practice’s computer system. Auditing practice’s compliance against NICE technology assessment guidance. Provide newsletters or bulletins on important prescribing messages.
Education and Training
Provide education and training to primary healthcare team on therapeutics and medicines optimisation.
Care Quality Commission
Work with the general practice team to ensure the practice is compliant with CQC standards where medicines are involved.
Public health
Support public health campaigns. Provide specialist knowledge
Job Types: Full-time, Fixed term contract
Salary: From £40,057.00 per year
Benefits:
- Company pension
Schedule:
- Monday to Friday
Experience:
- Pharmacist: 2 years (required)
Licence/Certification:
- Registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council (required)
Willingness to travel:
- 50% (preferred)
Work Location: One location