PCN Clinical Pharmacist

at  The Confederation Hillingdon CIC

ABOUT US:

The Confederation, Hillingdon CIC works with general practice and other healthcare providers in Hillingdon to deliver high quality clinical services to patients. Our aim is to improve care for patients by working collaboratively across primary care and our partners as part of the Integrated Care Partnership. The Confederation team also work to develop and support individual GP practices, PCNs and Neighbourhoods and their changing needs. We are of the NHS but independent, innovative and transformational.
General capacity across primary care is being expanded rapidly. The Confederation is determined to develop as an attractive place to work that provides rewarding roles and opportunities to grow in order to attract and retain great staff that in turn provides the highest quality care.

JOB SUMMARY:

As a Clinical Pharmacist, the post holder will work as part of a multidisciplinary team to develop and run processes for repeat prescription reauthorisation, management of medicines on transfer of care and systems for safer prescribing. They will work directly with patients to assess and treat conditions, manage long-term conditions as well as promote self-care. They will be part of a group of Primary Care Network (PCN) Clinical Pharmacists working under the supervision and mentoring of a Clinical Pharmacist Manager. You will be expected to complete the accredited 18-month Primary Care Pharmacy Education Pathway provided by CPPE as part of their training and the support to obtain their Independent Prescriber Qualification. The 18-month CPPE pathway does not need to be completed if the pharmacist meets a HEE (Health Education England) exemption such as completion of Clinical Diploma.

• Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients within the practice, care homes and/or domiciliary visit to proactively manage polypharmacy and produce recommendations for senior clinical pharmacist, nurses and/or GP on prescribing and monitoring.
• See (where appropriate) patients with single or multiple medical problems where medicine optimisation is required (e.g. Respiratory, Cardiovascular and Diabetes).
• Clinics are done face to face, via telephone, home visits and in the future, possibly video consultations.
• The post holder will undertake clinics for patients or develop one to one relationships in order to de-prescribe where necessary or offer clinical leadership on medicines optimisation and quality improvement.
• Review the on-going need for each medicine, a review of monitoring needs and an opportunity to support patients with their medicine adherence ensuring they get the best use of their medicines (i.e. medicines optimisation). Make appropriate recommendations to GPs for medicine improvement.
• Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for clinicians on prescribing and monitoring. Work with care home staff to improve safety of medicines ordering and administration.
• Managing caseload of patients with common/minor/self-limiting ailments 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.
• Provide patient facing clinics and a telephone helpline for those with questions, queries and concerns about their medicines in the practice.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
• Telephone medicines support
• Provide a telephone help line for patients with questions, queries and concerns about their medicines.
• 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 high-risk patient groups.
• 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 high risk groups of patients (e.g. those with medicine compliance aids or those in Care Homes).
• Ensure that patients are referred to the appropriate healthcare professional for the appropriate level of care within an appropriate period e.g. pathology results, common/minor ailments, acute conditions, long term condition reviews etc.
• Produce and implement a repeat prescribing policy within each PCN practice. 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.
• Identification of cohorts of patients at high risk of harm from medicines through pre-prepared practice computer searches. This might include risks that are patient related, medicine related, or both.
• Contribute pharmaceutical advice for the development and implementation of new services that have medicinal components (e.g. advice on treatment pathways and patient information leaflets).
• Undertake clinical audits of prescribing in areas directed by the GPs, feedback the results and implement changes in conjunction with the relevant practice team.
• Implement changes to medicines that result from MHRA alerts, product withdrawal and other local and national guidance.
• Auditing practices compliance against NICE technology assessment guidance.
• Work with the general practice team to ensure the practice is compliant with CQC standards where medicines are involved.