Senior Primary Care Clinical Pharmacist

Reports to: Clinical Lead GP and Practice Manager

Responsible to: Clinical Lead GP

Proposed salary: Band 8.1 – 8.7 on the ABC pay scale, which is equivalent to £49,419.20- £55,654.05 per annum dependent on experience

Hours of work: Part time (up to 30 hours per week)
 
Base: Langley Corner Surgery

About Alliance for Better Care CIC

Alliance for Better Care CIC is a GP Federation that unites 47 NHS GP practices across 12 Primary Care Networks in Sussex and Surrey. We support our Primary Care colleagues as well as their patients, to transform how healthcare is managed within the community.

As a membership organisation, our focus is to work in partnership with our members and help them to improve the provision of General Practices in the local area.

We work with – and listen to – our GP Practices, PCNs, Hospitals, Community Organisations and the Third Sector. These vital partnerships ensure that, together, we deliver a truly integrated approach that offers the support and expertise needed to effectively serve our communities. 

About Crawley Care Collaborative PCN

Crawley Care Collaborative Primary Care Network is an NHS Collaboration between four GP Practices - Bridge Medical Centre, Langley Corner Surgery, Leacroft Medical Practice and Southgate Medical Group - working together to provide enhanced access services.

Our surgery teams work closely, sharing expertise and resources to develop new services. Our vision is to continue to improve the quality of care that we provide in alignment with the needs of our patient population.

Our Primary Care Network builds on the existing primary care services and enables a greater provision of proactive, personalised and more integrated health and social care. We are supported by practitioners in additional roles who allow us to create bespoke multi-disciplinary teams based on the needs of our local population.  By working together with local community services, this allows us to make support available to people where it is most needed.

More about our Primary Care Network and our services: www.crawleycarecollaborativepcn.org/

Study Leave/Training

There are opportunities for a study leave allowance.

Supervision

Regular 1:1’s including an annual formal appraisal are held with a line manager. If you are in a patient-facing role, you will also receive regular Clinical Supervisions with a Clinical Supervisor. 

Benefits

• Generous annual leave allowance
• Access to NHS pension
• Bespoke training programme
• Cycle to Work Scheme
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Enhanced maternity pay
• NHS discounts
• Leadership Development Programme
• Salary sacrifice schemes – technology and electric vehicle
• Opportunities for secondments

Primary duties and areas of responsibility

From start of post:

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 responsible for prescribing as an independent prescriber for conditions where medicines have a large component (e.g. medicine optimisation for stable angina symptom control, warfarin monitoring and dose adjustment for patients requiring long‐term anticoagulants). Review the on-going need for each medicine, a review of monitoring needs and an opportunity to support patients with their medicines ensuring they get the best use of their medicines (i.e. medicines optimisation). Whilst carrying out the above ensure document appropriately to support achievement of relevant QOF targets.

Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients with multi‐morbidity and polypharmacy and implement own prescribing changes (as an independent prescriber) and order relevant monitoring tests.

Future potential to manage own caseload of care home residents. Support and work with CCG Medicines Management (MM) Team to undertake clinical medication reviews with patients with multi‐morbidity and polypharmacy and implement own prescribing changes (if an independent prescriber) and order relevant monitoring tests.

Provide patient facing clinics for those with questions, queries and concerns about their medicines in the practice.

Provide telephone support for patients with questions, queries and concerns about their medicines.

Act as a source of medicines information for all of the practice team and patients, (such as around doses, side effects, adverse events, possible alternatives, i.e. around out of stocks). Suggesting and recommending solutions.

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). Work in partnership with hospital and local provider 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.

Managing caseload of patients with common/minor/self-limiting ailments while working within scope of practice and limits of competence. Signposting to community pharmacy and referring to GPs or other healthcare professionals where appropriate.

Manage own caseload for patients and diagnose people with long term ailments while remaining within scope of practice and limits of competence. Referring to GP and/or other healthcare professionals where appropriate

Ensure that patients are referred to the appropriate healthcare professional for the right care. Ensuring that the addition of the pharmacist to the clinical team results in a reduction in workload for other clinicians.

Work with case managers, multidisciplinary (health and social care) review teams, hospital colleagues and virtual ward teams to manage medicines-‐related risk for readmission and patient harm. Put in place changes to reduce the prescribing of these medicines to high-‐risk patient groups.

Produce and implement a practice repeat prescribing policy in line with the recommendations from the Medicines Management Team (MMT), implement the practice’s 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.

Identify national and local policy and guidance that affects patient safety through the use of medicines, including MHRA alerts, product withdrawals and emerging evidence form clinical trials. Manage the process of implementing changes to medicines and guidance for practitioners.

Take a leading role in the contractual requirements to support frail patients with their medication including medication review and patient identification (i.e. patients with problematic polypharmacy)

Work with CCG MMT to implement local and national guidelines including NICE etc. Liaise with hospital colleagues where prescribing needs to be returned to specialists.

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.

Work with the general practice team to ensure the practice is compliant with CQC standards where medicines are involved. Undertake risk assessment and ensure compliance with medicines legislation.

To support public health campaigns. To provide specialist knowledge on all public health programmes available to the general public.

Role may evolve to include:

Manage own caseload of vulnerable housebound patients at risk of hospital admission and harm from poor use of medicines. Implement own prescribing changes (if an independent prescriber) and ordering of monitoring tests. Attend and refer patients to multidisciplinary case conferences. Identifying key areas of need for vulnerable patients and formulating care plans.

Working with colleagues, identify and provide leadership on areas of prescribing and medicines optimisation. Conduct clinical audits and medicine optimisation projects or work with colleagues such as GP registrars, practice managers etc., feedback the results and implement changes in conjunction with the practice team. Present results and provide leadership on suggested changes. Contribute to national and local research initiatives.

Ensure that patients are referred to the appropriate healthcare professional for the appropriate level of care within an appropriate period of time e.g. pathology test results, common/minor ailments, acute conditions, long term condition reviews etc

Person specification: Senior Clinical Pharmacist

Professional Registration

Essential:

• Mandatory registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council

Qualifications & Training

Essential:

• Completion of an undergraduate degree in pharmacy and registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council.
• Completed CPPE course

Desirable:

• Completed independent prescribing qualification

Experience

Essential:

• Experience and an awareness of the breadth of common acute and long-terms conditions that are likely to be seen in general practice

Desirable:

• Minimum of 4 years post qualifying experience
• Demonstrates experience managing other pharmacists and pharmacist technicians
• Experience of partnership/collaborative working and of building relationships across a variety of organisations

Skills & Knowledge

Essential:

Understanding of the wider determinants of health, including social, economic and environmental factors and their impact on communities 

An appreciation of the nature of primary care prescribing, concepts of rational prescribing and strategies for improving prescribing

Knowledge of IT systems, including ability to use word processing skills, emails and the internet to create simple plans and reports

Able to plan, manage, monitor and review general medicine optimisation issues in core areas for long term conditions

Desirable:

• In depth therapeutic and clinical knowledge and understanding of the principles of evidence-based healthcare

Personal Qualities & Attributes

Essential:

• Commitment to reducing health inequalities and proactively working to reach people from all communities
• Able to recognise personal limitations and refer to more appropriate colleague(s) when needed
• Ability to organise, plan and prioritise on own initiative, including when under pressure and meeting deadlines
• High level of written and oral communication
• Ability to work flexibly and enthusiastically within a team or on own initiative

Desirable:

• Able to provide leadership and maintain effective working relationships and to promote collaborative practice with all colleagues 

 Other

Essential:

• Meets DBS reference standards and has a clear criminal record
• Safeguarding and other mandatory training such as BLS
• Access to own transport and ability to travel across the locality on a regular basis, including to visit people in their own homes