Lead Pharmacist - Critical Care, Anaesthetics and General Surgery

A rare and exciting opportunity has arisen for a clinically focused and motivated GPhC registered pharmacist to join our team within Surgery, Anaesthetics and Critical Care at Raigmore Hospital. This role will be supported by the Team lead pharmacist, two post holders will work closely together, deputising for each other during periods of leave. This role would allow the successful candidate to develop as a leader in both the surgical specialties and critical care, with supervision and support available from experts in each area.

Our surgical and critical care pharmacists are integral members of the multi-disciplinary team.

Raigmore Hospital cares for trauma patients, patients undergoing emergency/complex surgical interventions and patients requiring critical care. Such acuity and complexity necessitates the provision of a high quality clinical pharmacy service. The post holder will be supported to help deliver care to 18 flexible level 2/3 critical care beds, surgical admissions, and general surgery/orthopaedic wards (emergency and elective), on a rota basis. The post will be split, with approximately 50% in a patient-facing clinical role, and 50% on directorate duties. Directorate-level activities include finance reporting, protocol and guideline development, and clinical governance.

The post holder will be based within the pharmacy team at Raigmore Hospital. With the National Treatment Centre (NTC) opening in Inverness in 2023 caring for both ophthalmology and orthopaedic patients, the successful candidate will also support the pharmacy service delivery for the NTC.

The successful candidate will have the flexibility to shape the role dependent on the needs of the different services. Other areas of involvement may include specialist pharmacy input to the Acute Pain Team, and reviewing complex patients referred via the pre-assessment unit prior to surgery.

The successful candidate will supervise the training and development of students, trainee and junior pharmacists, and pharmacy technicians. Clinical pharmacy technicians are embedded within the team and we are also looking at opportunities for pharmacy support workers to play a valuable role within the overall skills set. The job will also involve education and training of the wider multi-disciplinary team, including medical students and medical/nursing staff.

The post provides many opportunities for personal and professional development; you will be able to build on your clinical, leadership, managerial and strategic skills. Candidates should be good communicators, enthusiastic, self-motivated, innovative and able to problem solve and prioritise. You should be able to work unsupervised whilst at the same time being a strong team-player. Post graduate qualifications including a Diploma/MSc in Clinical Pharmacy and Independent Prescribing are desirable, but support and encouragement will be given to the right candidate to achieve these once in post. Specific training in critical care/surgery will also be encouraged. As a department, we are committed to our pharmacists becoming credentialed at RPS Core Advanced level, and support for this will be provided in the form of 5 development days per year, a peer support group and a dedicated Lead Education and Training pharmacist for Advanced Practice within the board.

We would welcome applications from pharmacists within all sectors of pharmacy, as this role would offer the opportunity to build on transferable skills. This is an exciting time to join our friendly pharmacy team, as we work towards transforming the way we approach patient care. As well as developing the clinical roles of pharmacy support staff, we are currently implementing HEPMA across all our hospital sites in NHS Highland, and have installed robotics in both our dispensary and distribution services, improving patient safety and efficiency.

Inverness offers the perfect balance of city living whilst having the beauty and ruggedness of the Highlands on your doorstep, allowing for a healthy work life balance.

Note you will be required to work in the emergency on call, weekend working and public holiday rotas.

Informal enquiries are most welcome, to Rhona Gunn, Associate Director of Pharmacy (Acute); email: ; Tel:

NHS Scotland is committed to encouraging equality and diversity among our workforce and eliminating unlawful discrimination. The aim is for our workforce to be truly representative and for each employee to feel respected and able to give their best. To this end, NHS Scotland welcomes applications from all sections of society.

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