Job overview
An opportunity has arisen to join our established, friendly, and dynamic clinical pharmacy team at South London and the Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust for a 12-month fixed-term secondment cover starting immediately.
We expect the post-holder to have experience of hospital pharmacy services and some knowledge of mental health pharmacy in order to quickly embed into the ward multidisciplinary teams during this secondment.
The vacancy is 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
About the team
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 (PSCAG) 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. Our CAG includes a variety of professional groups, including pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, scientists, healthcare professionals, students and administrative and support staff.
About the location
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.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
1. To deliver a comprehensive clinical pharmacy service to inpatient wards and community mental health teams in line with Trust policies, procedures and standards.
2. To support patients to gain maximum benefit from their medicines, through medicines related consultations with patients and carers, involving patients in treatment decisions, and improving patient and carer satisfaction with information they receive about medicines
3. To support the multidisciplinary inpatient teams to use medicines safely and effectively and reduce medicines wastage through medicines optimisation and quality improvement programmes, and by providing medicines related training
4. To develop post-registration foundation pharmacist skills in accordance with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s (RPS) Foundation Pharmacy Framework and work towards specialist mental health pharmacy skills
5. To act as a practice supervisor in the training and education of trainee pharmacists and junior pharmacists
6. To prescribe medicines within competence and scope of practice, if qualified to do so by having completed the post-graduate certificate in Independent Prescribing
7. To partake in the pharmacy on-call service (Emergency Duty Cover, bank holiday rotas) and a Saturday service.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
8. MPharm or equivalent
9. Registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC), with mandatory CPD
Desirable criteria
10. Postgraduate certificate/diploma in mental health or pharmacy practice or equivalent
11. Member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society or Member / associate member of the CMHP
12. Independent prescriber
Experience
Essential criteria
13. Relevant experience in patient-facing pharmacist roles
14. Relevant experience in NHS hospital pharmacy
Desirable criteria
15. Previous experience in providing clinical mental health services
16. Previous experience in working in primary care networks or GP practices
Skills
Essential criteria
17. Good written and verbal communication
18. Empathy and understanding of medication issues facing people with mental health problems and their carers
19. 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
20. Good time management with ability to prioritise workload and meet deadlines
Desirable criteria
21. Ability to collect and analyse outcome data for service evaluation purposes
22. Ability to direct own learning and adapt quickly to new and challenging situations