Primary Care Clinical Pharmacist - Haywards Heath Central PCN
Reports to: PCN Clinical Director and Practice Managers
Responsible to: PCN Clinical Director
Proposed salary: Band 7.1 – 7.9 on the ABC pay scale, which is equivalent to £41,351.78 - £48,450.20 per annum dependent on experience (pro rata)
Hours of work: Full time (37.5 hours) and part-time applications will be considered
Base: The successful candidate will be based predominantly at Newtons Practice but there may be a need to cross cover to support both Core Network Practices as needed. Remote/hybrid working can be supported
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.
More about our organisation: www.allianceforbettercare.org
Our Values
- We innovate
If we can do something better, we should.
- We are honest
Even when it is difficult.
- We care
And put the patient first.
- We are inclusive
We listen and we act.
- We deliver
And we’re known to like a challenge!
About Haywards Heath Central PCN
Haywards Heath Central Primary Care Network is a NHS Collaboration between two GP Practices – Dolphins Practice and Newtons Practice - 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.
Study Leave/Training
There are opportunities for a study leave allowance.
Supervision
Regular supervisions on a one-to-one basis 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
Job summary
The post holder will report to the GP Clinical Lead within the Primary Care Network for clinical supervision. They will also have strong working relationships with the Practice Managers and other clinicians in the network.
Alliance for Better Care will provide consistent employment support throughout the appointment.
As part of clinical duties, the successful candidates will join the multi-disciplinary staff in providing comprehensive care and will work with patients, carers, and families.
ABC as employer will provide support and ensure access to the NHSE England training programme as well as a local network of Clinical Pharmacists working in general practice.
This post is part of the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme for Primary Care Networks funded by NHS England and includes funded access to the Clinical Pharmacist Training Pathway for any further modules required to complete the pathway.
The post holder is a Pharmacist, who acts within their professional boundaries, supporting and working alongside a pharmacist team in general practice. In this role they will be supported by a GP Clinical Lead who will develop, manage and mentor them.
The post holder will work as part of a multi-disciplinary team in a patient-facing role. The post holder will take responsibility for areas of chronic disease management within the practice and undertake clinical medication reviews to proactively manage patients with complex polypharmacy.
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, manage some aspects of the quality and outcomes framework and enhanced services and contribute to the delivery of the local medicine’s optimisation strategy.
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.
The post holder will be supported to develop their role to become a nonmedical prescriber (if not already a prescriber).
Primary duties and areas of responsibility
From Start of Post:
- See (where appropriate) patients with single or multiple medical problems where medicine optimisation is required (e.g. COPD, asthma)
- 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). Make appropriate recommendations to Senior Pharmacists or GPs for medicine improvement
- Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for senior clinical pharmacist, nurses and/or GP on prescribing and monitoring
- 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)
- 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
- Produce and implement a practice repeat prescribing policy in line with the recommendations Medicines Management Team
- 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
- Support the contractual requirements to support frail patients with their medication including medication review and some patient identification (i.e. patients with problematic polypharmacy)
- Undertake clinical audits of prescribing in areas directed by the GPs, feedback the results and implement changes in conjunction with the practice team
- Work with MMT to support the implementation of local and national guidelines including NICE, Prescribing Formularies 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
- Work with the general practice team to ensure the practice is compliant with CQC standards where medicines are involved
- To support public health campaigns
- To provide specialist knowledge on all public health programmes available to the general public
- Implement changes to medicines that result from MHRA alerts, product withdrawal and other local and national guidance
Role may evolve to include:
- 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
- Managing caseload of patients with common/minor/self-limiting ailments
- Signposting to community pharmacy and referring to GPs or other healthcare professionals where appropriate