Job description

Job responsibilities

Job Role - may include the following:

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 high-risk groups of patients (e.g., those with medicine compliance aids or those in care homes).

Risk stratification:

• 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.

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 high-risk patient groups.

Repeat prescribing:

• Produce and implement a repeat prescribing policy.
• Manage the repeat prescribing reauthorization process by reviewing patient requests for repeat prescriptions and reviewing medicines reaching review dates and flagging up those needing a review to the GP. Monitor and manage patients with polypharmacy.

Telephone and patient facing medicines support:

• Provide a telephone help line for patients with questions, queries and concerns about their medicines.
• Hold clinics for patients requiring face-to-face medicines use reviews, i.e. advise about medicines and adherence support.

Medication review:

• Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for the GPs on prescribing and monitoring.

Care home medication reviews:

• Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for the GP on prescribing and monitoring.
• Work with care home staff to improve safety of medicines ordering and administration.

Domiciliary clinical medication review:

• Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for the GPs on prescribing and monitoring.

Long-term condition clinics:

• See patients with single medical problems where medicine optimisation is required (e.g., COPD, asthma).
• Make recommendations to GPs for medicine improvements.

Service development:

• Contribute pharmaceutical advice for the development and implementation of new services that have medicinal components (e.g., advise on treatment pathways and patient information leaflets).

Care Quality Commission:

• Work with the Member Practices to ensure compliance with CQC standards where medicines are involved.
• Undertake risk assessment and management and ensure compliance with medicines legislation.

Public health:

• To contribute to public health campaigns, including flu vaccinations and adult immunisation programmes.

Cost saving programmes:

• Undertake changes to medicines (switches) designed to save on medicine costs where a medicine or product with lower acquisition cost is now available.

Medicine information to practice staff and patients:

• Answers all medicine-related enquiries from GPs, other practice staff and patients with queries about medicines.

Information management:

• Analyse, interpret and present medicines data to highlight issues and risks to support decision making.

Medicines quality improvement:

• Undertake simple audits of prescribing in areas directed by the GPs, feedback the results and implement changes in conjunction with the practice team.

Training:

• Provide education and training to primary healthcare team on therapeutics and medicines optimisation.

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 setting 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.

Medicines safety:

• Implement changes to medicines that result from MHRA alerts, product withdrawal and other local and national guidance.

Person Specification

Skills and Knowledge

Essential

• In depth therapeutic and clinical knowledge and understanding of the principles of evidence-based healthcare.
• An appreciation of the nature of primary care prescribing, concepts of rational prescribing and strategies for improving prescribing.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Good IT skills.
• Able to recognize priorities.
• Able to work under pressure and to meet deadlines.
• Work effectively independently and as a team member.
• Self-Motivation.
• Adaptable.
• Full Driving License / willingness to travel across patch.
• Mandatory training up to date.

Qualifications

Essential

• . Pharmacy Degree from UK university
• . Independent Prescribing Certificate or working towards it

Experience

Essential

• Experience / familiarity with clinical systems such as SystmOne.
• Any Experience in Pharmacy (Hospital,Primary Care or Community).

Desirable

• 2 years post qualification experience in Pharmacy (Hospital, Primary Care or Community).
• Experience of working in a GP practice
• Independent prescribing qualification.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website .

Employer details

Employer name

Northolt PCN

Address

Jubilee Gardens Health Centre

Jubilee Gardens

Southall

Middlesex

UB1 2TJ