We are looking for a motivated, forward‑thinking Pharmacist to join the multi‑disciplinary team at St Andrews Surgery. The practice team consists of 3 GP partners, 1 Clinical Pharmacist, 3 Practice Nurses, 3 Health Care Assistants and a very supportive administration and reception team.
The role will be varied – answering medication queries; managing repeat prescription authorisations and re‑authorisations; undertaking medicines reconciliation and various other aspects of medicines management. You will also provide prescribing advice and support to the practice clinical team which will include undertaking audits, developing protocols, providing feedback to prescribers and monitoring improvements.
As part of your role you will also support the practice team with chronic disease management, shared care and anticoagulation medication processes as well as supporting the medication processes within nursing homes.
Responsibilities
* See patients in multi‑morbidity clinics and in partnership with primary healthcare colleagues and implement improvements to patient’s medicines, including de‑prescribing.
* Manage own case load and run long‑term condition clinics where medicines have a large component.
* 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).
* Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients with multi‑morbidity and polypharmacy and order relevant monitoring tests.
* Provide telephone consultations for patients with questions, queries and concerns about their medicines.
* Reconcile medicines following discharge from hospitals, intermediate care and into care homes, including identifying and rectifying unexplained changes and managing these changes without referral to a GP.
* Patient‑facing care home/residential clinical medication reviews – manage own caseload of care home residents; undertake clinical medication reviews with patients with multi‑morbidity and polypharmacy and order relevant monitoring tests.
* Work with care home staff to improve the safety of medicines ordering and administration.
* Manage own caseload of vulnerable house‑bound patients at risk of hospital admission and harm from poor use of medicines; undertake medication reviews and ordering of monitoring tests; attend and refer patients as necessary, identifying key areas of need and formulating care plans.
* Management of common/minor/self‑limiting ailments – signpost to community pharmacy and refer to GPs or other healthcare professionals where appropriate.
* Provide patient‑facing clinics for those with questions, queries and concerns about their medicines in practice.
* Provide telephone consultations for patients with questions, queries and concerns about their medicines.
* Medicine information to practice staff and patients – answer all medicine‑related enquiries and suggest solutions; provide follow‑up for patients.
* Management of medicines at discharge from hospital – reconcile medicines following discharge from hospitals, intermediate care and into care homes; perform clinical medication review, produce post‑discharge medicines care plan and 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 (e.g. those with medicine compliance aids or those in care homes).
* Work in partnership with hospital colleagues to proactively manage patients at high‑risk of medicine‑related problems before discharge.
* Repeat prescribing – produce and implement a practice repeat prescribing policy; manage the repeat prescribing re‑authorisation process by reviewing patient requests for repeat prescriptions and reviewing medicines reaching review dates.
* Service development – develop and manage new services built around new medicines or NICE guidance, where new medicine recommendations allow the development of a new care pathway.
* Information management – analyse, interpret, and present medicines data to highlight issues and risks and support decision‑making.
* Medicines quality improvement programmes – identify and provide leadership on areas of prescribing and medicines optimisation; conduct clinical audits and improve projects or work with colleagues such as GP registrars, practice managers, etc.; present results and contribute to national and local research initiatives.
* Implementation of local and national guidelines – monitor practice prescribing against the local health board formulary for medicines that should be prescribed by hospital doctors or subject to shared care; liaise with hospital colleagues where prescribing needs to be returned to specialists; assist practices in maintaining a practice formulary that is hosted on the practice computer system.
* Education and training – provide education and training to primary healthcare team on therapeutics and medicines optimisation; provide training to visiting medical, nursing, pharmacy and other healthcare students where appropriate; support public health campaigns and provide specialist knowledge on all public health programmes available to the general public.
* Collaborative working relationships – recognise roles of other colleagues within the organisation and their role to patient care; demonstrate use of appropriate communication to gain the co‑operation of relevant stakeholders, including patients, senior and peer colleagues, other professionals, and other NHS/private organisations; demonstrate the ability to lead a team and refer to more appropriate colleague(s) where necessary; actively work towards developing and maintaining effective working relationships both within and outside the practice and locality; foster and maintain strong links with all services across the locality; explore the potential for collaborative working and take opportunities to initiate and sustain such relationships; demonstrate ability to integrate general practice with community and hospital pharmacy teams; liaise with HB colleagues including HB pharmacists on prescribing related matters to ensure consistency of patient care and benefit; liaise with HB pharmacists and Heads of Medicines Management/Optimisation to benefit from peer support; liaise with other stakeholders as needed for the collective benefit of patients, including but not limited to patients, GP, nurses, other practice staff, other healthcare professionals including HB pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, optometrists, dentists, health and social care teams and dieticians, locality/GP prescribing lead, locality managers, community nurses and other allied health professionals, community and hospital pharmacy teams, hospital staff with responsibilities for prescribing and medicines optimisation.
Qualifications
* Completion of an undergraduate degree in pharmacy.
* Registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council.
* Membership as practising pharmacist with the General Pharmaceutical Council.
* Commitment towards continuing professional development in accordance with requirements of the General Pharmaceutical Council.
* Relevant post‑registration experience in community, hospital, and/or primary care pharmacy practice.
* Demonstrate the ability to communicate complex and sensitive information in an understandable form to a variety of patients.
* Evidence of working autonomously and as part of a team.
* Proven ability to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of their own clinical practice.
* Understanding and knowledge of policy developments related to the delivery of General Practice and primary care services, the GMS Contract, Clinical governance.
* Understanding of systems to gain an understanding of the health needs of the Practice population as they relate to Primary Care.
* Understanding of Evidence Based practice.
* Knowledge of national standards that inform practice (e.g. National Service frameworks, NICE guidelines etc).
* Understanding of equal opportunity and diversity issues.
* Ability to assess and manage patient risk effectively and safely.
* Well developed word processing, data collection and general IT skills.
* Excellent interpersonal, verbal, and written communication skills.
* Time management and ability to prioritise workload.
* Able to analyse data and information, drawing out implications for the individual patient and impact on care plan.
* Able to establish and maintain effective communication pathways within the organisation, and with key external stakeholders.
* Post‑graduate qualification to Diploma or Masters level in a recognised area of pharmacy practice or equivalent.
* Experience of Microsoft Office software.
* Experience of using a clinical software system.
* Interpreting and implementing local and national policy agendas for health.
* Knowledge of Primary care.
* An ability to think strategically.
* Proven record of effective use of networking and influencing skills.
* Experience of presenting information to a wider audience.
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
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