Job summary
An exciting opportunity for a Practice ClinicalPharmacist to join our established and growing Pharmacy Team within our PrimaryCare Network.
WEB PCN is aforward-thinking Primary Care Network comprising of Budleigh Salterton, Haldon, Imperial, Rolle and Woodbury Medical Practices in East Devon.We recognise the value that Pharmacy Teams can bring to our Practices and ourpatients. Our aim is to provide exemplary patient care; finding innovativesolutions in General Practice to deliver the best care we can to our patients.
Main duties of the job
The successful candidate will have a patient facing role in managing long-term conditions; this may be in the Practice, domiciliary or care home setting. The candidate will have excellent written and verbal communication skills and include experience of conducting clinical medication reviews. The successful applicant will also work as part of a multidisciplinary team to develop and run processes for management of medicines and systems for safer prescribing. Support will be provided to develop the role, including enrolment in Primary Care Pharmacist Educational Pathway and becoming an independent prescriber.
Experience in General Practice would be an advantage, but is not essential if the applicant is clinically up-to-date and understands the process of a full medication review in the primary care setting.
About us
Woodbury, Exmouth and Budleigh (WEB) Primary Care Network (PCN) are a group of 5 East Devon GP Practices working together to deliver integrated Primary Care services across our combined population of over 52,000 patients.
Our 5 WEB Practices have a long history of collaboration and support and as a PCN we believe in building strong relationships between our Practices and with our local services and our population. We work in partnership with all our teams and promote a culture that celebrates the work of everyone in the Practices across the PCN
Job description
Job responsibilities
PURPOSE OF THE ROLE
Thepost holder will work within their clinical competencies as part of amulti-disciplinary team to provide expertise in clinical medicines management,provide face to face structured medication reviews, manage long termconditions, management of medicines on transfer of care and systems for saferprescribing and support acute prescription request, while addressing both thepublic health and social care needs of patients in the GP Practice(s) that makeup the PCN.
Thepost holder will perform face to face medication review of patients withpolypharmacy especially for older people, people in residential care homes andthose with multiple comorbidities. The post holder will provide leadership on qualityimprovement and clinical audit and well as managing some aspects of the Qualityand Outcomes Framework.
Thisrole is pivotal to improving the quality of care and operational efficienciesso requires motivation and passion to deliver an excellent service within General Practice.
Thepost holder will be supported to develop their role to become a non-medicalprescriber, if that qualification is not already held.
KEYDUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Undertake clinical medication reviews withpatients and produce recommendations for Senior Clinical Pharmacist, Nursesand/or GP on prescribing and monitoring.
CareHome Medication Reviews. Undertakeclinical medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for the Senior Clinical Pharmacist, Nurses or GPs on prescribing and monitoring. Workwith care home staff to improve safety of medicines ordering andadministration.
Long-term condition clinics. See (whereappropriate) patients with single or multiple medical problems where medicineoptimisation is required ( Respiratory, Cardiovascular and Diabetes).Review the on-going need for each medicine, a review of monitoring needs and anopportunity to support patients with their medicines taking ensuring they getthe best use of their medicines ( medicines optimisation). Make appropriaterecommendations to Senior Pharmacists or GPs for medicine improvement.
Domiciliary. Undertake clinicalmedication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for the Senior Clinical Pharmacists, Nurses and GPs on prescribing and monitoring. Attend andrefer patients to multidisciplinary case conferences.
Riskstratification Identification of cohorts of patients at high risk of harm frommedicines through pre-prepared practice computer searches. This might includerisks that are patient related, medicine related, or both.
Unplanned hospital admissions. Review the useof medicines most commonly associated with unplanned hospital admissions andreadmissions through audit and individual patient reviews. Put in place changesto reduce the prescribing of these medicines to high-risk patient groups.
Management of common/minor/self-limitingailments. Managing caseload of patients with common/minor/self-limitingailments, while working within a scope of practice and limits of competence.Signposting to Community Pharmacy, and referring to GPs or other Healthcare Professionals where appropriate.
Patient facing medicines support. Providepatient facing clinics for those with questions, queries and concerns abouttheir medicines in the Practice.
Provide medicines support for patients withquestions, queries and concerns about their medicines.
Management of medicines at discharge fromhospital. To reconcile medicines following discharge from hospitals,intermediate care and into Care Homes, including identifying and rectifyingunexplained changes and working with patients and Community Pharmacists toensure patients receive the medicines they need post discharge. Set up andmanage systems to ensure continuity of medicines supply to high-risk groups ofpatients ( those with medicine compliance aids or those in Care Homes).
Medicine information to Practice staff andpatients. Answer relevant medicine-relatedenquiries from GPs, other network staff and Healthcare Teams ( Community Pharmacy, together with patient queries about medicines. Suggesting and recommending solutions. Providing follow up for patients to monitorthe effect of any changes.
Ensure that patients are referred tothe appropriate Healthcare Professional for the appropriate level of carewithin an appropriate period of time pathology results, common/minorailments, acute conditions, long term condition reviews etc.
PROMOTEPRESCRIBING QUALITY AND SAFETY INCLUDING:
Support repeat prescribing policy within eachPCN Practice. Manage the repeat prescribing reauthorisation process byreviewing patient requests for repeat prescriptions and reviewing medicinesreaching review dates and flagging up those needing a review. Ensure patientshave appropriate monitoring tests in place when required.
Contribute pharmaceutical advice for thedevelopment and implementation of new services that have medicinal components( advice on treatment pathways and patient information leaflets).
Analyse, interpret and present medicines datato highlight issues and risks to support decision making.
Undertake clinical audits of prescribing inareas directed by the GPs, feedback the results and implement changes inconjunction with the relevant practice team.
Implement changes to medicines that resultfrom MHRA alerts, product withdrawal and other local and national guidance.
Implementation of local and national guidelinesand formulary recommendations. Monitor Practice prescribing against the local health economy's RAG list and makerecommendations 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 apractice formulary that is hosted on each Practices computer system. Auditing Practices compliance against NICE technology assessment guidance. Provide newsletters or bulletins on importantprescribing messages.
Provide education and training to Primary Healthcare Team on therapeutics and medicines optimisation.
Work with the General Practice Teams toensure the Practices are compliant with Care Quality Commission standards where medicines areinvolved.
Support public health campaigns. To provide specialist knowledge on all publichealth programmes available to the general public.
PROMOTE COLLABORATIVE WORKING
Participatein the PCN MDT.
Liaise with CCGcolleagues including CCG Pharmacists on prescribing related matters to ensureconsistency of patient care and benefit.
Liaise with colleagues including CCG, STP/ICSPharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians on prescribing related matters to ensureconsistency of patient care and benefit.
Liaise with colleagues including CCG,STP/ICSPharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians Heads of Medicines Management/Optimisationto benefit from peer support.
Fosterand maintain strong links with all services across the PCN and neighbouringnetworks.
Explore the potential forcollaborative working and take opportunities to initiate and sustain suchrelationships.
Liaise with otherstakeholders as needed for the collective benefit of patients, including butnot limited to:
1. Patients and their representatives
2. GP, Nurses and other Practice staff
3. Social Prescribers, First Contact Physiotherapists, Physicians, Associates and Paramedics.
4. Community Pharmacists and support staff
5. Other members of the medicines management (MM)team including Pharmacists, Pharmacy Technicians and Dieticians
6. Locality / GP Prescribing lead
7. Locality Managers
8. Community Nurses and other Allied Health Professionals
9. Hospital staff with responsibilities forprescribing and medicines optimisation
PROFESSIONALDEVELOPMENT
10. Work with your line Manager to undertakecontinual personal and professional development, taking an active part inreviewing and developing the role and responsibilities. Adhere toorganisational policies and procedures, including confidentiality, safeguarding,lone working, information governance, and health and safety.
11. Work with your line Manager to access regularclinical supervision, to enable you to deal effectively with the difficultissues that people present. Review yearly progress and develop clear plans toachieve results within priorities set by others.
12. Participate in the delivery of formal educationprogrammes.
13. Demonstrate an understanding of currenteducational policies relevant to working areas of the Practice and keep up to datewith relevant clinical practice. Research and Evaluation
14. Critically evaluate and review literature.
15. Identify where there is a gap in the evidencebase to support practice.
16. Generate evidence suitable for presentations atpractice and local level.
17. Apply research evidence base into the workplace.Health and Safety/Risk Management
18. Comply at all times with the Health and Safetypolicies, in particular following safe working procedures and reportingincidents using the organisations Incident Reporting Systems. Comply with theData Protection Act (2018) and the Access to Health Records Act (1990). Special working conditions.
19. The post holder is required to travel independentlybetween work sites and to attend meetings etc hosted by other agencies.
20. The post-holder will have contact with bodyfluids, wound exudates, urine etc. while in clinical practice.
MISCELLANEOUS
21. Work as part of the team to seek feedback,continually improve the service and contribute to business planning.
22. Undertake any tasks consistent with the level ofthe post and the scope of the role, ensuring that work is delivered in a timelyand effective manner.
23. Duties may vary from time to time, withoutchanging the general character of the post or the level of responsibility.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
24. Mandatory registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council
25. Completion of an undergraduate degree in pharmacy and registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council
26. Demonstrates and understanding of, and conforms to, relevant standards of practice
27. Follows professional and organisational policies/procedures relating to performance management
Desirable
28. Membership Primary Care Pharmacy Association (PCPA)
29. Membership of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society
30. May hold or be working towards an independent prescribing qualification
31. Clinical Diploma
32. Special knowledge in areas such as mental health, learning disability or dementia care
Skills and Knowledge
Essential
33. In depth therapeutic and clinical knowledge and understanding of the principles of evidence-based healthcare
34. Understanding of the wider determinants of health, including social, economic and environmental factors and their impact on communities
35. An appreciation of the nature of primary care prescribing, concepts of rational prescribing and strategies for improving prescribing
36. Knowledge of IT systems, including ability to use word processing skills, emails and the internet to create simple plans and reports
37. Able to plan, manage, monitor and review general medicine optimisation issues in core areas for long term conditions
38. Able to obtain and analyse complex technical information
39. Able to gain acceptance for recommendations and influence/motivate/persuade the audience to comply with the recommendations/agreed course of action where there may be significant barriers
40. Able to identify and resolve risk management issues according to policy/protocol.
41. Able to follow legal, ethical, professional and organisational policies/ procedures and codes of conduct and understand the principles of research governance.
Personal Qualities & Attributes
Essential
42. Commitment to reducing health inequalities and proactively working to reach people from all communities
43. Demonstrates use of appropriate communication to gain the co-operation of relevant stakeholders (including patients, senior and peer colleagues, and other professionals, other NHS/private organisations, CCGs)
44. Is able to recognise personal limitations and refer to more appropriate colleague(s) when necessary
45. Ability to identify risk and assess/manage risk when working with individuals
46. Able to work under pressure and meet deadlines
47. Demonstrates accountability for delivering professional expertise and direct service provision
48. Able to provide leadership and to finish work tasks
49. Ability to maintain effective working relationships and to promote collaborative practice with all colleagues
50. Demonstrates personal accountability, emotional resilience and works well under pressure
51. Ability to organise, plan and prioritise on own initiative, including when under pressure and meeting deadlines
52. High level of written and oral communication skills
53. Ability to work flexibly and enthusiastically within a team or on own initiative
54. Knowledge of and ability to work to policies and procedures, including confidentiality, safeguarding, lone working, information governance, and health and safety
Experience
Essential
55. Minimum of two years experience as a pharmacist
56. Experience and an awareness of the breadth of common acute and long-terms conditions that are likely to be seen in general practice
57. Demonstrates ability to integrate general practice with community and hospital pharmacy teams community groups
58. Experience of partnership/collaborative working and of building relationships across a variety of organisations
Other
Essential
59. Meets DBS reference standards and has a clear criminal record, in line with the law on spent convictions
60. Adaptable
61. Self-Motivation
62. Safeguarding and other mandatory training
63. Immunisation status
64. Ability to work flexibly with the ability to travel between sites and undertake domiciliary visits