Senior Clinical Pharmacist Bishop Auckland

The post holder is a pharmacist, who acts within their professional boundaries, supporting and working alongside a team of pharmacists and support staff in general practice based in Bishop Auckland.

In this role they will provide support as a senior clinical pharmacist who will develop, manage and mentor the PCN pharmacy team. They will work with the Head of Clinical Services to provide support, direction and supervision.

The pharmacist works as part of a multi-disciplinary team in a multi-faceted role with elements of patient-facing and organisational based work. The pharmacist aids PCN member practices in areas of chronic disease management within the practice and undertakes clinical medication reviews to proactively manage patients with complex polypharmacy. The pharmacist provides primary support to general practices within the PCN with regards to prescription and medication queries. They may involve supporting the repeat prescription system, dealing 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 patients in the GP practices.

Main duties of the job The pharmacist will ensure that the PCN integrates with community & hospital pharmacy to help utilise skill mix, improve patient outcomes, ensure better access to healthcare & help manage workload. Support DDHF management team members & lead personnel in the day to day management of their functions & teams. Day to day direct line management & supervision of Clinical Pharmacists & technicians. Identify areas for continual improvement within own areas of responsibility & proactively assist with implementing & managing change, as & when required. Undertake specific assigned tasks, project support, or development work as directed by the Head of Clinical Services. Support & adhere to DDHF HR management systems & processes for & by pharmacy team. Support & adhere to DDHF performance & quality management systems & processes by pharmacy team. Ensuring appropriate clinical governance systems & processes are developed, implemented & maintained for all DDHF employed pharmacy staff. Assisting in the management & mitigation of organisational risk. The role is pivotal to improving the quality of care & operational efficiencies so requires motivation & passion to deliver excellent service within general practice. In addition the pharmacist will be supported to develop their role in becoming a non-medical prescriber.

About us 12 GP practices across Durham Dales got together, looking for a solution to help them provide the care patients needed, share resources and ideas, & be prepared for the challenges the NHS would face in the future.

The answer they came up with was a formal collaboration between the dozen practices: the Durham Dales Health Federation

DDHFs founding principal is to work together to provide high-quality, cost effective primary healthcare services. DDHF provide a range of services that all GP practices in the area can use to help look after patients.

Our range of staff, include Advanced Nurse Practitioners, Pharmacists, Health care coordinators & social prescribing link workers as well as non-clinical, administration support staff.

DDHF are able to offer a range of benefits to their employees; these are as follows;

Flexible Working

NHS pension is carried over

Car lease scheme which is transferable.

We fully support training & development

Clinical supervision

Bike Scheme

Salary Sacrifice Scheme

Dress Down Friday

Complimentary refreshments

Free Car Park

Immunisations offered

Eye tests reimbursed

Job responsibilities The pharmacist will provide direct line management for up to 5 clinical Pharmacists within their PCN, in addition to the number of pharmacy technicians within the PCN.

The additional responsibilities of a PCN Senior Clinical Pharmacist to the PCN Clinical Pharmacist role would include:

Providing a minimum of one formal clinical supervision session per PCN pharmacist per month

Monthly one-to-one meeting with each PCN pharmacist (Max of 5) and Pharmacy Technicians

Responsibility for each PCN pharmacists training and development

Planning and implementation of new staff inductions

Provide the first line of support for queries/issues

Responsible for rota management and absence requests

Attending PCN meetings where necessary on behalf of the pharmacy team

Patient facing clinical medication reviews

Risk stratification of high risk drugs/patients

Management of common/minor/self-limiting ailments

Telephone medicines support

Management of medicines at discharge from hospital

Medicine information to practice staff and patients

Repeat prescribing and repeat dispensing

Implementation of local and national guidelines and formulary recommendations

Provide highly specialist advice and recommendations to other healthcare professionals in writing by person or telephone

Undertake prescription screening, medication review, patient drug history taking, counselling and specialist drug ordering

Prescribing where appropriate in areas of suitable clinical competence

Job description Job responsibilities

• Providing a minimum of one formal clinical supervision session per PCN pharmacist per month
• Monthly one-to-one meeting with each PCN pharmacist (Max of 5) and Pharmacy Technicians
• Responsibility for each PCN pharmacists training and development
• Planning and implementation of new staff inductions
• Provide the first line of support for queries/issues
• Responsible for rota management and absence requests
• Attending PCN meetings where necessary on behalf of the pharmacy team

• Patient facing long-term condition clinics
• Patient facing clinical medication reviews
• Patient facing care home medication reviews
• Risk stratification of high risk drugs/patients
• Management of common/minor/self-limiting ailments
• Telephone medicines support
• Management of medicines at discharge from hospital
• Medicine information to practice staff and patients
• Repeat prescribing and repeat dispensing
• Implementation of local and national guidelines and formulary recommendations
• Provide highly specialist advice and recommendations to other healthcare professionals in writing by person or telephone
• Undertake prescription screening, medication review, patient drug history taking, counselling and specialist drug ordering
• Prescribing where appropriate in areas of suitable clinical competence

Specific responsibilities The Senior Pharmacist is responsible and accountable for:

Reviewing the ongoing need for each medicine, a review of monitoring needs and an opportunity to support patients with their medicines, ensuring they get the best use of their medicines (i.e. medicines optimisation). Make appropriate recommendations to other clinical pharmacists GPs for medicine improvement.

Undertaking clinical medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for senior clinical pharmacist, nurses and/or GP on prescribing and monitoring.

Undertaking clinical medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for the senior clinical pharmacist, nurses or GPs on prescribing and monitoring. Work with care home staff to improve safety of medicines ordering and administration.

Undertaking 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

Managing caseload of patients with common/minor/self-limiting ailments while working within a scope of practice and limits of competence. Signposting to community pharmacy and referring to GPs or other healthcare professionals where appropriate

Providing patient facing clinics for those with questions, queries and concerns about their medicines in the practice

Providing a telephone help line for patients with questions, queries and concerns about their medicines.

Answering relevant medicine related enquiries from GPs, other practice 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

Reviewing 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.

Reconciling 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).

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

Reviewing, amending and implementing a practice repeat prescribing policy . click apply for full job details