Job overview
An exciting opportunity has arisen to join our clinical pharmacy team at South London and the Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust working primarily within the Croydon Community Mental Health Teams. Community transformation is well underway and in SLaM, pharmacy services are in integral part of community care. You will able to be part of this exciting change towards care closer to home and provide direct patient care within the neighbourhood.
We expect the post-holder to have experience of mental health pharmacy services and some knowledge of community care (GP, community or CMHTs) to provide seamless care during this period of community transformation.
The post-holder will be part of the pharmacy team at the Bethlem Royal Hospital which also serves the Ladywell Unit in Lewisham, and community mental health teams across Lewisham and Croydon. You may be required to travel to any of these sites on occasion.
We are committed to get the very best out of our staff and support staff in their career aspirations. Once established in post, there are further opportunities for development and career progression in a variety of settings, for example education and training, quality improvement, research, clinical trials, independent prescribing and more.
Main duties of the job
You will provide pharmaceutical care to inpatients and community patients within South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, as well as work in our main dispensary. You will join the on-call rota and late duty rota where applicable. You may be required to travel to various hospital and community mental health teams sites.
You will be supported by a dedicated supervisor and will have the opportunity to undertake short courses on mental health pharmacy and work alongside expert pharmacists in the field.
Working for our organisation
The pharmacy department provides dispensing services from the Maudsley, Lambeth, Bethlem Royal hospitals and Ladywell unit and a clinical pharmacy service to 1,000 inpatients and 3,000 community patients. The Medicines Advice Centre at the Maudsley is the national centre for information on psychotropics. The department produces the Maudsley Prescribing Guidelines, now on its 15th Edition, and is the world’s leading pharmacy centre for research in psychiatry, having published over 300 clinical papers in the past 25 years.
The pharmacy is also part of the Pharmaceutical Sciences Clinical Academic Group which incorporates more than 1,800 staff and students and includes staff from all four organisations within King’s Health Partners with the aim to integrate the work across all partner organisations to improve practice, research and healthcare/academic education and training strategy.
Bethlem Royal Hospital is based in a beautiful setting in over 200 acres of green space in the London Borough of Bromley, South East London. The hospital has easy access to nearby main roads and have offers free parking. The site is within walking distance from of Eden Park and West Wickham overland stations.
Croydon and the Croydon community services hub are located at Jeanette Wallace House, close to the vibrant high-street that offers fantastic shopping opportunities and a wide range of restaurants. It is within walking distance to East Croydon overland station with quick links to London.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
• To provide an expert pharmacy service to SLAM community mental health teams and home treatment teams
• To have medicines related consultations with patients and carers; involve patients in treatment decisions; improve patient and carer satisfaction with information they receive about medicines
• To improve physical health outcomes for community mental health patients, for example by participating in vaccination programmes, physical health clinics and physical health monitoring programmes
• To support the community teams to use medicines safely and effectively and reduce medicines wastage
• To implement medicines optimisation and quality improvement programmes in the teams
• To provide medicines related training to community mental health team staff and other members of the pharmacy team
• To prescribe medicines to service users within competence and agreed management plans
• To participate in the inpatient or dispensary service on a rotational basis where required to by the site lead pharmacist
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
1. MPharm or equivalent
2. Registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC), with mandatory CPD
Desirable criteria
3. Postgraduate certificate/diploma in mental health or pharmacy practice or equivalent
4. Member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society or Member / associate member of the CMHP
5. Independent prescriber
Experience
Essential criteria
6. Relevant experience in patient-facing pharmacist roles
7. Relevant experience in NHS hospital pharmacy
8. Previous experience in providing clinical mental health services
Desirable criteria
9. Previous experience in working in primary care networks or GP practices
Skills
Essential criteria
10. Good written and verbal communication
11. Empathy and understanding of medication issues facing people with mental health problems and their carers
12. Ability to work without close supervision, making decisions and acting upon them within the limitations and understanding of the job responsibilities, or to refer appropriately
13. Good time management with ability to prioritise workload and meet deadlines
Desirable criteria
14. Good computer skills, in particular for completing spreadsheets, graphs and reports (A)
15. Ability to direct own learning and adapt quickly to new and challenging situations