Primary Care Network Clinical Pharmacist

Primary Care Network Clinical Pharmacist Allendale Road Surgery is seeking a Clinical Pharmacist to join our friendly, supportive, and forward thinking practice as part of the Northolt Greenford PCN also known as NGP PCN.

This is a part time role 20 hours per week, worked between Monday to Friday between 8:30am and 6:30pm, with working hours and set days to be mutually agreed. There may be an opportunity for the successful candidate to increase their hours in the future.

Main duties of the job The successful candidate will have responsibilities that include seeing a cohort of patients who may have medication queries or require medication reviews, and you will take the lead in designing and delivering a service specifically tailored to their needs. Additionally, you will be responsible for conducting review clinics for patients with chronic diseases such as Asthma, COPD, Pre-Diabetes, Diabetes, Hypertension, and Heart Failure. These clinics will be conducted face-to-face, through telephone consultations, or via video calls.

Ensuring safe prescribing practices, monitoring higher risk drugs, managing long-term conditions, and identifying potential missed diagnoses in accordance with CQC standards. It is an ongoing process that requires continuous vigilance and management.

As the post holder, you will be expected to lead in implementing and managing MHRA and drug safety alerts and updates. Using appropriate searches, you will identify patient cohorts within the network to ensure safe practices and promptly communicate necessary updates or changes to the practice teams.

About us Allendale Road Surgery is a well established, high performing NHS GP practice serving a diverse population of approximately 4,800 patients. We are a supportive teaching practice with a strong multidisciplinary team and a shared commitment to delivering excellent, compassionate patient care.

We are highly engaged within the PCN and actively support collaborative working and service development.

Job responsibilities Key Duties and Responsibilities

• Risk stratification. Design, develop and implement computer searches to identify cohorts of patients with chronic disease who need review and medicines optimisation. Manage own case load. Do the necessary checks for QOF and Ealing Standard entering the data correctly on the computer system. Implement improvements to the patient medication and prescribing independently where necessary.
• Manage patients holistically. Where patients have more than one condition; reviewing co morbidities in the same appointment and updating QOF and Ealing Standard as appropriate. Referring to other members of the Primary Health Care team and Secondary Care as necessary.
• Medication reviews. Undertake structured medication reviews with patients with multimorbidity and polypharmacy and implement own prescribing changes (as an independent prescriber) and order relevant monitoring tests. Provide a telephone support for patients with questions, queries and concerns about their medicines and deliver medicines reconciliation from secondary care recommendations.
• Pathology. Request and manage the results for the cohort of patients under your care in a safe and timely way.
• Medicines safety and quality improvement. Identify and provide leadership on areas of prescribing requiring improvement. Conduct own audits and improvement projects and work with colleagues. Present results and provide leadership on suggested change. Demonstrate continuous QI activity focused upon prescribing safety as specified in the QOF guidance. This work for example might include deliver against the prescribing indicators in the Impact Investment Fund (IIF). Contribute to national and local research initiatives.
• Service development. Develop and manage new services that are built around new medicines or NICE guidance, where new medicine/recommendations allow the development of a new care pathway.
• Care Quality Commission. Provide leadership to the practice manager and GPs to ensure the practice is compliant with CQC standards where medicines are involved as part of the regulatory role of this position.
• Meetings. Attend MDT, Network, Practice, ICB and Federation meetings as required. Being prepared to contribute to Network pharmacy issues as appropriate.
• Oversight Network Pharmacy issues. In addition to a clinical specialism this role involves oversight of prescribing across the two network practices and requires the ability to prepare and present reports as required.
• Relationships. To foster and maintain good relationships between, within and outside the Practices involved in the network.
• Population and Public Health. To devise and manage population and public health campaigns to run within the network if required.
• Medicine information to practice staff and patients. Answer all medicine related enquiries from GPs, other practice staff and patients with queries about medicines. Suggesting and recommending solutions. Providing follow up for patients to monitor the effect of any changes.
• Flexibility. To understand that this is a new and evolving role which may change with the needs of the Network. To be willing to change and the facilitate change in others and the system to promote quality care.
• Training. Provide education and training to primary healthcare team on therapeutics and medicines optimisation. Provide training to visiting medical, nursing and other healthcare students where appropriate.
• Implementation of local and national guidelines and formulary recommendations. Monitor practice prescribing against the local health economies RAG list for medicines that should be prescribed by hospital doctors (red drugs) or subject to shared care (amber drugs). Liaise directly with hospital colleagues where prescribing needs to be returned to specialists. Assist practices in setting and maintaining a practice formulary that is hosted on the practices computer system. Suggest and develop computer decision support tools to help remind prescribers about the agreed formulary choice and local recommendations. Auditing practices compliance against NICE's technology assessment guidance. Provide newsletters on important prescribing messages to improve prescribers knowledge and work with the team to develop and implement other techniques known to influence implementation of evidence such as audit and feedback.

Person Specification Qualifications

• Hold a Master of Pharmacy degree and have completed one year of preregistration training.
• Excellent communication and consultation skills, both verbal face to face and telephone and written.
• Demonstrates a patient centred approach, placing patients and their relatives at the heart of all care decisions.
• Ability to deliver clinical clinics safely and effectively within appropriate timeframes.
• Competent in taking accurate patient histories, applying relevant clinical examination skills, and recognising common presentations and red flags, managing or referring appropriately.
• Recognises professional limitations and appropriately escalates concerns to senior clinicians or GPs when required.
• Demonstrates strong problem solving and clinical decision making skills.
• Able to communicate complex and sensitive information clearly and appropriately to a range of audiences.
• Experience in structured medication reviews, including management of complex multimorbidity, polypharmacy, and medicines optimisation.
• Utilises rational, evidence based approaches to prescribing and medication review.
• Demonstrates expertise in managing long term conditions through clinical review, care planning, motivational lifestyle advice, monitoring, and optimisation.
• Maintains accurate high quality clinical records.
• Identifies, manages, and mitigates clinical risk appropriately.
• Competent in the use of local clinical IT systems, including accessing patient data, running searches, understanding Read codes, pathology, and system functionality.
• Promotes the safe and effective use of electronic prescribing systems.
• Actively engages in continuing professional development (CPD) and maintains reflective practice.
• Understands medicines licensing and its implications, including use of specials, liquids, medical devices, and appliances.
• Manages incidents and complaints sensitively, appropriately, and assertively.
• Demonstrates respect for equality, diversity, and inclusion, with an understanding of whistleblowing procedures.
• Adheres to all legal, ethical, and professional standards of practice.
• Has a sound understanding of governance and regulatory frameworks within primary care.
• Has completed CPPE training.
• Communicates effectively with a wide range of stakeholders to gain cooperation and support, including patients, senior and peer colleagues, and professionals from other NHS or private organisations e.g. ICBs, NHS Trusts, local Federations.
• Recognises personal limitations and refers appropriately to more suitable colleagues when required.
• Liaises effectively with ICB pharmacists, and Heads of Medicines Management/Optimisation to ensure consistency of prescribing, improve patient outcomes, and benefit from peer support.
• Has experience or awareness of a wide range of common acute and long term conditions encountered in general practice.
• Minimum of two years postgraduate pharmacy experience, evidenced through a professional portfolio.
• Able to plan, manage, monitor, advise, and review pharmaceutical care programmes for patients across core therapeutic areas . click apply for full job details