PCN - Clinical Pharmacist - Dronfield

Are you a pharmacist who is passionate about exploring a new opportunity to develop your knowledge and skills in delivering excellence in patient clinical care?

The Chesterfield and Dronfield Primary Care Network (PCN) is looking for a Clinical Pharmacist to join their growing Arc Primary Care Pharmacy Team to work alongside an experienced Senior Clinical Pharmacist, a Pharmacy Technician and the practice team, in Dronfield Medical Practice, to develop their knowledge and skill with keen support from the existing team, to meet the diverse needs of our patients.

We are looking for an individual who is committed to improving patient care and is passionate about clinical pharmacy. The candidate must be able to work effectively as part of a diverse multidisciplinary team. Due to the support available through the practice-based senior clinical pharmacist and pharmacy technician, the practice team, and the larger pharmacy team, this role would be suitable for pharmacists with limited general practice experience, including newly qualified pharmacists, and pharmacists from other sectors with transferrable skills. The post holder would be supported in enrolling on, and completing, the CPPE Primary Care Pharmacy Education Pathway (PCPEP), and then an independent prescribing course, unless already completed.

Main duties of the job The post holder will work within their clinical competencies as part of a multi-disciplinary team to provide expertise in clinical medicines management, patient-facing structured medication reviews, manage long term conditions, management of medicines on transfer of care and systems for safer prescribing, manage repeat prescription authorisations and reauthorisation, acute prescription request, while addressing both the public health and social care needs of patients in the GP practice(s) that make up the PCN. They will be supported by senior and lead clinical pharmacists who will develop, manage and mentor them.

This role is pivotal to improving the quality of care and operational efficiencies so requires motivation and passion to deliver an excellent service within general practice. The post holder will be supported to develop their role to become a non-medical prescriber if that qualification is not already held.

Dronfield Medical Practice is a friendly, nurturing and innovative practice in the heart of the picturesque North East Derbyshire town of Dronfield, close to Sheffield. Dronfield Medical Practice is one of the ten practices in The Chesterfield and Dronfield PCN, which is one of the largest Primary Care Networks in the UK. Whilst the role is integrated and embedded in one practice, it is part of a larger and growing team of pharmacy professionals across the PCN, that is committed to delivering high quality care for our patients through collaborative working.

About us Arc Primary Care is the umbrella organisation of the Primary Care Network (PCN) in Chesterfield and Dronfield. Arc Primary Care is an alliance of GP Practices.

Our members consist of 10 GP practices which cover a population of over 110,000 patients. At Arc we are committed to ensuring the sustainability of General Practice (and the time honoured value of list-based general practice model) and realising the benefits of working together.

We deliver enhanced services within the PCN designed to support and enhance the services offered by our member GP Practices within Chesterfield. We do this by employing staff to work through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme and finding innovative and sustainable solutions to the changing needs of the Practices; we bid for contracts to help tackle health inequalities and drive up standards of care within the Chesterfield and Dronfield locality.

Our mission: Committed to high quality collaborative person-centred care. Delivered with integrity and transparency, improving health and wellbeing for all.

Benefits of working with us:

• NHS Pension with employer contributions
• On appointment 27 days plus 8 Bank Holiday annual leave entitlement which rises annually with length of service up to 33 days (pro rata for part time staff)
• Entitlement of up to 5 days professional/study leave per annum, pro rata.
• Access to Well-Being Support
• Blue light Card Discount

Job responsibilities Key duties and responsibilities

Deliver clinics for patients requiring medication reviews, stratifying the need for technical reviews, medicines adherence reviews (including polypharmacy reviews), focal long-term condition/clinical reviews (see section 3) or holistic long-term condition/clinical reviews (structured medication reviews). Provide support for patients with questions, queries, and concerns about their medicines.

2. Medicines-related clinical support for care homes

Deliver clinical medication reviews with patients, care home staff and aging well team, produce recommendations for the multidisciplinary team on medicines optimisation, prescribing and monitoring. Work with care home staff and aging well team to optimise medicines management, and support safe and effective prescribing, and medicines use.

Deliver reviews to patients with single or multiple medical problems where medicine optimisation is required (e.g., Respiratory, Cardiovascular-Reno-Metabolic). Review the ongoing 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.

4. Patient facing Domiciliary Structured Medication Reviews

Deliver clinical medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for the senior clinical pharmacists, nurses and GPs on prescribing and monitoring. Attend and refer patients to multidisciplinary case conferences.

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. This includes prescription services software such as Eclipse Live Radar 500 searches. Wherever possible, technicians will be accountable for reviewing the results of these searches, with clinical pharmacists being responsible for supporting pharmacy technicians where managing high-risk patients is outside the scope of their competence, or directly covering during leave and exceptional circumstances.

6. 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.

7. 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).

8. Medicine information to practice staff and patients

Answers relevant medicine-related enquiries from GPs, other network 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.

9. Signposting

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

10. Repeat prescribing

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.

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

12. Information management

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

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

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

15. Implementation of local and national guidelines and formulary recommendations

Monitor practice prescribing against the local health economy sRAG 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 seeing and maintaining a practice formulary that is hosted on each practice's computer system.

Auditing practices compliance against NICE technology assessment guidance.

Provide newsletters or bulletins on important prescribing messages.

16. Education and Training

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

17. Care Quality Commission
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