Clinical Pharmacist in General Practice

at  Grand Union Health Centre

Clinical Practice Based Pharmacist The post holder is a pharmacist, who acts within their professional boundaries, supporting and working alongside a team of pharmacists in general practice. This role is working within Grand Union Health Centre. This role, is to work as part of the practice/s team, and to have the support of the other pharmcists within the Primary Care Network. The post holder will work as part of a multi-disciplinary team in a patient-facing role.
The job will involve helping the entire primary care team with chronic disease management. The pharmacist will undertake clinical medication reviews and proactively manage patients with complex poly-pharmacy. The post holder will provide primary support to general practice staff with regards to prescription and medication queries. They will help support the repeat prescription system, deal with acute prescription requests, and medicines reconciliation on transfer of care and systems for safer prescribing, providing expertise in clinical medicines advice while addressing both public and social care needs of patient in the GP practice (s).
The post holder will provide clinical leadership on medicines optimisation and quality improvement and manage some aspects of the quality and outcomes framework and enhanced services which are commissioned by our CCG. The post holder will ensure that the practice integrates with community and hospital pharmacy to help utilise skill mix, improve patient outcomes, ensure better access to healthcare and help manage workload. The role is pivotal to improving the quality of care and operational efficiencies so requires motivation and passion to deliver excellent service within general practice. Primary Duties and Areas of Responsibility Patient facing Long-term condition Clinics Review (where appropriate) patients with single or multiple medical problems where medicine optimisation is required (e.g.
COPD, asthma) and establish 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). The pharmacists will make appropriate recommendations to the rest of the team including the GPs for medicine improvement. Patient facing Clinical Medication Review Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for prescribing and monitoring.
Patient facing medicines support Provide patient facing clinics for those with questions, queries and concerns about their medicines in the practice. These clinics will be both face to face, video and telephone appointments. Telephone medicines support Provide a telephone help line for patients with questions, queries and concerns about their medicines. Medicine information to practice staff and patients Answers relevant medicine-related enquiries from GPs, other practice staff, other healthcare teams (e.g.
community pharmacy) and patients with queries about medicines. Suggesting and recommending solutions. Providing follow up for patients to monitor the effect of any changes Unplanned hospital admissions Review the use of medicines most commonly associated with unplanned hospital admissions and readmissions through audit and individual patient reviews. Put in place changes to reduce the prescribing of these medicines to highrisk patient groups.
Management of medicines at discharge from hospital To reconcile medicines following discharge from hospitals, intermediate care and into care homes, including identifying and rectifying unexplained changes and working 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 highrisk groups of patients (e.g. those with medicine compliance aids or those in care homes). Repeat prescribing Produce 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 and flagging up those needing a review. Ensure patients have appropriate monitoring tests in place when required. Information management Analyse, interpret and present medicines data to highlight issues and risks to support decision making. Medicines quality improvement Undertake clinical audits of prescribing in areas directed by the GPs, feedback the results and implement changes in conjunction with the practice team.
Medicines safety Implement changes to medicines that result from MHRA alerts, product withdrawal and other local and national guidance. Implementation of local and national guidelines and formulary recommendations Monitor practice prescribing against the local health economys RAG list and make recommendations 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 a practice formulary that is hosted on the practices computer system. Auditing practices compliance against NICE technology assessment guidance.
Provide newsletters or bulletins on important prescribing messages. Education and Training Provide education and training to primary healthcare team on therapeutics and medicines optimisation. Care Quality Commission Work with the general practice team to ensure the practice is compliant with CQC standards where medicines are involved. Public health To support public health campaigns.
To provide specialist knowledge on all public health programmes available to the general public. E.g. Flu vaccinations and smoking cessation Collaborative Working Relationships Recognises the roles of other colleagues within the organisation and their role in patient care 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 e.g. CCGs) Demonstrates ability to work as a member of a team Is able to recognise personal limitations and refer to more appropriate colleague(s) Actively work toward developing and maintaining effective working relationships both within and outside the practice and locality Foster and maintain strong links with all services across the PCN Explores the potential for collaborative working and takes opportunities to initiate and sustain such relationships Demonstrates ability to integrate general practice with community and hospital pharmacy teams Liaises with CCG colleagues including CCG Pharmacists on prescribing related matters to ensure consistency of patient care and benefit Liaises with other stakeholders as needed for the collective benefit of patients including but not limited to Patients GP, nurses and other practice staff, Other healthcare professionals including CCG pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, optometrists, dentists, health and social care teams and dieticians etc.
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 Knowledge, Skills and Experience Required Completion of an undergraduate degree in pharmacy and registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council Have experience and an awareness of common acute and long-term conditions that are likely to be seen in general practice May hold or be working towards an independent prescribing qualification. Recognises priorities when problem-solving and identifies deviations from normal pattern and is able to refer to seniors or GPs when appropriate Able to follow legal, ethical, professional and organisational policies/procedures and codes of conduct Involves patients in decisions about prescribed medicines and supporting adherence as per NICE guidelines. NB: it is anticipated level of qualification held may vary according to the level of position and the components of the role being carried out

Please refer the Job description for details