Primary Care Pharmacist

at  St Andrews Surgery

(* We welcome applications/interest from newly qualified Pharmacists as well. Full support and in house training will be provided for all aspects of Pharmacist work in General Practice) Primary duties and areas of responsibility Patient-facing long-term condition clinics · See patients in multi-morbidity clinics and in partnership with primary healthcare colleagues and implement improvements to patient’s medicines, including de-prescribing. · Manage own case load and run long-term condition clinics where medicines have a large component. · Review 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). Patient-facing clinical medication review · Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients with multi-morbidity and polypharmacy and order relevant monitoring tests. Patient-facing care home/residential clinical medication reviews · Manage own caseload of care home residents. Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients with multi-morbidity and polypharmacy and order relevant monitoring tests.

• Work with care home staff to improve safety of medicines ordering and administration. Patient-facing domiciliary/home visits · Manage own caseload of vulnerable housebound patients at risk of hospital admission and harm from poor use of medicines. Undertake medication reviews and ordering of monitoring tests. · Attend and refer patients as necessary identifying key areas of need for vulnerable patients and formulating care plans.

Management of common/minor/self-limiting ailments · Signposting to community pharmacy and referring to GPs or other healthcare professionals where appropriate. Patient-facing medicines support · Provide patient facing clinics for those with questions, queries and concerns about their medicines in practice. Telephone medicines support · Provide telephone consultations for patients with questions, queries and concerns about their medicines. Medicine information to practice staff and patients · Answer all 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. 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 manage these changes without referral to a GP.

• Perform a clinical medication review, produce a post discharge medicines care plan including dose titration and booking of follow-up tests 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). · 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. 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. Ensure patients are booked in for necessary monitoring tests where required.

Service development · 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). Information management · Analyse, interpret, and present medicines data to highlight issues and risks to support decision-making. Medicines quality improvement programmes · Identify and provide leadership on areas of prescribing and medicines optimisation.

• Conduct clinical audits and improve projects or work with colleagues such as GP registrars, practice managers, etc. · Present results and provide leadership on suggested changes. Contribute to national and local research initiatives. Medicines safety · Identify national and local policy and guidance that affects patient safety through the use of medicines, including MHRA alerts, product withdrawals, and emerging evidence from clinical trials.
• Manage the process of implementing changes to medicines and guidance for practitioners. Implementation of local and national guidelines and formulary recommendations · Monitor practice prescribing against the local health boards formulary 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. Assist practices in maintaining a practice formulary that is hosted on the practice’s computer system.

Education and training · Provide education and training to primary healthcare team on therapeutics and medicines optimisation. · Provide training to visiting medical, nursing, pharmacy, and other healthcare students where appropriate. Public health · To support public health campaigns. To provide specialist knowledge on all public health programmes available to general public.

Collaborative working relationships · Recognise the roles of other colleagues within the organisation and their role to patient care. · Demonstrate use of appropriate communication to gain the co-operation of relevant stakeholders; including patients, senior and peer colleagues, other professionals, and other NHS/private organisations. · Demonstrate the ability to lead a team. · Is able to recognise personal limitations and refer to more appropriate colleague(s) where necessary.

• Actively work towards developing and maintaining effective working relationships both within and outside the practice and locality. · Foster and maintain strong links with all services across the locality. · Explore the potential for collaborative working and take opportunities to initiate and sustain such relationships. · Demonstrate ability to integrate general practice with community and hospital pharmacy teams.
• Liaise with HB colleagues including HB pharmacists on prescribing related matters to ensure consistency of patient care and benefit. · Liaise with HB pharmacists and Heads of Medicines Management/Optimisation to benefit from peer support. · Liaise with other stakeholders as needed for the collective benefit of patients, including but not limited to: o Patients, GP, nurses, and other practice staff o Other healthcare professionals including HB pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, optometrists, dentists, health and social care teams and dieticians o Locality/GP prescribing lead o Locality managers o Community nurses and other allied health professionals o Community and hospital pharmacy teams o Hospital staff with responsibilities for prescribing and medicines optimisation Knowledge, skills, and experience required · Have an experience/awareness of the breadth of common acute and long-term conditions that are likely to be seen in a general medical practice. · Be able to plan, manage, monitor, advise, and review general pharmaceutical care programmes for patients across core areas, including disease states/long term conditions.
• Accountable for delivering professional expertise and direct service provision.

• Actively work towards developing and maintaining effective working relationships both within and outside the practice and locality. · Foster and maintain strong links with all services across the locality. · Explore the potential for collaborative working and take opportunities to initiate and sustain such relationships. · Demonstrate ability to integrate general practice with community and hospital pharmacy teams.
• Liaise with HB colleagues including HB pharmacists on prescribing related matters to ensure consistency of patient care and benefit. · Liaise with HB pharmacists and Heads of Medicines Management/Optimisation to benefit from peer support. · Liaise with other stakeholders as needed for the collective benefit of patients, including but not limited to: o Patients, GP, nurses, and other practice staff o Other healthcare professionals including HB pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, optometrists, dentists, health and social care teams and dieticians o Locality/GP prescribing lead o Locality managers o Community nurses and other allied health professionals o Community and hospital pharmacy teams o Hospital staff with responsibilities for prescribing and medicines optimisation Knowledge, skills, and experience required · Have an experience/awareness of the breadth of common acute and long-term conditions that are likely to be seen in a general medical practice. · Be able to plan, manage, monitor, advise, and review general pharmaceutical care programmes for patients across core areas, including disease states/long term conditions.
• Accountable for delivering professional expertise and direct service provision