To optimise medicines management processes and achieve highly effective, safe, patient‑centred prescribing within a defined locality across a number of surgeries. The Practice Pharmacist will be expected to work autonomously, but with the support of the multi‑professional primary care team.
Within the team the Practice Pharmacist will focus on developing medicines optimisation services across the locality. This involves running processes for repeat prescription reauthorisation, management of medicines on transfer of care and developing systems for safer prescribing. The Practice Pharmacist will carry out medication reviews for patients with polypharmacy – especially for older people, people resident in care homes and those with multiple co‑morbidities/long‑term conditions.
The Practice Pharmacist will provide leadership on quality improvement and clinical audit, as well as managing some aspects of the Quality and Outcomes Framework. By working across surgeries, there is the opportunity to share ideas and examples of good practice. Time will be split proportionately, depending on the surgery list size, and work will vary depending on the needs of the practice.
Southend Coastal Surgeries is dedicated to delivering excellence in healthcare through its two branches, strategically located across Thorpe Bay and North Shoebury Surgery.
We also manage Westcliff Medical Centre.
We provide a wide range of NHS primary care services, striving to deliver the highest standards of medical and personal care. Your treatment is always delivered in a clinically effective manner by the most appropriate healthcare professional.
We aim to offer an effective, efficient, and fair healthcare service to all our patients by:
Key Duties
Management of medicines after discharge from hospital
To reconcile medicines following discharge from hospitals, intermediate care and into care homes, identify and rectify unexplained changes, manage these changes without referral to the GP, perform a clinical medication review, produce a post‑discharge medicines care plan including dose titration and booking follow‑up tests. Work 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 e.g. those with medicine compliance aids or those in care homes. Work in partnership with hospital colleagues e.g. 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.
Design, develop and implement searches to identify cohorts of patients at high risk of harm from medicines. Work with patients and the primary care team to minimise risks through medicines optimisation. Implement local and national guidelines and formulary recommendations. Monitor practice prescribing against the local health‑economy Red/Amber/Green/Grey lists for medicines that should be prescribed by hospital doctors or subject to shared care. Liaise directly with hospital colleagues where prescribing needs to be returned to specialists. Suggest and develop computer decision support tools to help remind prescribers about the agreed formulary choice and local recommendations. Audit practice compliance with NICE guidance. Proactively provide practice communications 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.
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 multi‑professional colleagues to manage medicines‑related risk for readmission and patient harm. Put in place changes to reduce the prescribing of the same medicines to high‑risk patient groups.
Repeat prescribing
Review, update and implement a practice repeat prescribing policy. Manage the repeat prescribing reauthorisation process by reviewing patient requests for repeat prescriptions and reviewing medicines reaching review dates.
Provide a telephone help line for patients with questions, queries and concerns about their medicines. Hold clinics for patients requiring face‑to‑face clinical medication reviews, CMRs – i.e. a review of the ongoing need for each medicine, a review of monitoring needs and an opportunity to support patients with their medicine taking. Identify people at risk of hospital admission and harm from poor use of medicines. Attend and refer patients to multidisciplinary team meetings.
Care home medication reviews
Manage caseload of care home residents, if required by the practice. Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients with multimorbidity and polypharmacy. Work with care home staff to improve safety of medicines ordering and administration.
Long term condition clinics
See patients in multi‑morbidity clinics and in partnership with primary healthcare colleagues and implement improvements to patients medicines, including de‑prescribing.
Develop and manage new services that are built around new medicines or NICE guidance, where new medicine/recommendations allow the development of a new care pathway e.g. new oral anticoagulants for stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation.
Care Quality Commission
Provide leadership to the practice manager and GPs to ensure the practice is compliant with CQC standards where medicines are involved.
Cost saving programmes
Make recommendations for, support and supervise practice prescribing clerks. Make changes to medicines designed to save on medicine costs where a medicine or product with lower acquisition cost is now available.
Medicine information to practice staff and patients
Answer all medicine related enquiries from GPs, practice staff and patients. Provide follow‑ups for patients to monitor the effect of any changes.
Identify and provide leadership on areas of prescribing requiring improvement. Either conduct own audits and improvement projects or work with colleagues such as GP registrars. Present results and provide leadership on suggested change. Contribute to national and local research initiatives.
Training & Shared Learning
Provide education and training to primary healthcare team on therapeutics and medicines optimisation. Provide training to visiting medical students. Facilitate shared learning across the practices on medication related issues, offering professional support and leadership.
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.