Clinical Pharmacist

Harbourside Family Practice; Bristol; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Part time

Job summary

A leading GP practice in Bristol seeks a part-time Clinical Pharmacist to enhance patient care. In this role, you'll work closely with GPs to provide clinical support, conduct medication reviews, and manage chronic diseases, ensuring patient safety and effective medicine use. The position offers flexible hours up to 22.5 per week, fostering professional development in a supportive environment. If you are passionate about quality patient care and teamwork, this opportunity is for you.

Benefits

Supportive work environment

Professional development opportunities

Qualifications

• In-depth knowledge of therapeutic practices and evidence-based healthcare.
• Minimum of 2 years post-qualification experience in a clinical setting.
• Excellent interpersonal and negotiating skills.

Responsibilities

• Provide clinical pharmacy support to improve patient outcomes.
• Perform medication reviews and manage chronic disease management.
• Collaborate with GPs and nurses on medication optimization.

Skills

Patient care focus

Excellent communication skills

Therapeutic knowledge

Clinical knowledge

Ability to work under pressure

Education

Registered Pharmacist with GPhC

Independent prescriber qualification

Job description

We are looking for a part-time Clinical Pharmacist (up to 22.5 hours per week) to join our supportive, forward-thinking GP practice team and make a real difference to patient care. This is a patient-facing role within a well-established multidisciplinary team, with close support and mentorship from an experienced Senior Clinical Pharmacist who is committed to developing your skills and confidence.

The role is flexible and responsive to the needs of our population, allowing you to use your clinical expertise while helping to shape and develop pharmacy services within our practice. You will have the opportunity to take ownership of defined areas of long-term condition management, build strong relationships with patients and colleagues, and contribute meaningfully to medicines optimisation and patient safety initiatives.

This post offers variety, autonomy and professional development, with opportunities to grow your interests, expand your scope of practice and, where applicable, work as an Independent Prescriber. If you are passionate about high-quality patient care, collaborative working and continuous improvement, this role offers a rewarding and supportive environment in which to thrive.

Main duties of the job

You will provide clinical pharmacy support across the practice, working closely with GPs, nurses and the wider team to improve patient outcomes and optimise medicines use. The role includes direct patient contact through clinics, telephone consultations and medication reviews, with a focus on supporting patients with long-term conditions and complex polypharmacy.

You will play a key role in safe and effective repeat prescribing processes, medicines reconciliation following hospital discharge, and responding to medicines‑related queries from both patients and staff. There is a strong emphasis on proactive care, patient safety and reducing medicines‑related risk.

You will also contribute to wider practice priorities such as medicines optimisation projects, audit activity, responding to safety alerts and supporting compliance with regulatory requirements. The post holder will manage their own workload, maintain accurate clinical records and work collaboratively with internal and external partners, including community pharmacies and medicines management teams.

About us

We are a 5 Partner high achieving PMS Practice situated in Portishead, a beautiful coastal town in North Somerset overlooking the Severn Estuary, just five miles from the city of Bristol.

We were rated the 4th best performing practice within BNSSG from the 2023 NHS patient survey: https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristols-best-worst-performing-gp-8630058

We are a forward thinking practice with a strong emphasis on teamwork and patient centred care. We work from a new purpose‑built health centre with bright, modern facilities that enable us to offer high quality clinical services to our local population of 11,500 patients. We are also a training practice.

We have had consistently high QoF results and were delighted that we were assessed as Good in our latest CQC inspection. We are also a 4.5 star rated practice on Google Reviews.

Job responsibilities

Job Summary

The post holder will work with our practice team to provide clinical pharmacist services. The services delivered and their format will be based on a needs assessment and may vary depending on the needs of our population. In this role, they will supported by our Senior Clinical Pharmacist who will develop, manage and mentor them.

The role will be working as part of a multi-disciplinary team, in a patient‑facing role. The post holder will take responsibility for areas of Chronic Disease Management within the practices, with examples such as hypertension reviews, heart failure reviews or lipid management. Opportunities to be involved in other conditions (AF, COPD, asthma, diabetes, minor ailments, etc) may arise and this will depend on the candidates skills and interest as well as on the practices needs and skill mix. The successful candidate will also undertake clinical medication reviews, including SMRs, to proactively manage patients with complex polypharmacy.

Practices will not require all duties and there will be a strategic plan agreed for each practice.

Medicine information to patients and practice staff

• Provide a telephone help line for patients with questions and queries about their medications
• Answer medicine‑related enquiries from GPs and practice staff
• Develop a good and efficient working relationship with local community pharmacies and promote appropriate use of their resources, such as Pharmacy First, PGDs and enhanced services.

Repeat prescribing

• Review, propose and action any necessary change to the practices repeat prescribing and medication management policies
• Working with the Prescribing Clerks, manage the repeat prescribing reauthorisation process by reviewing patient requests for repeat prescriptions and reviewing medicines reaching review dates; make necessary changes as an Independent Prescriber (if/once qualified), and ensure patients are booked in for necessary monitoring tests where required
• Undertake clinical medication reviews as part of regular cycles and opportunistically, including prescribing changes (as an Independent Prescriber) and order relevant monitoring tests
• Hold clinics for patients requiring face to face or telephone clinical medication reviews i.e. a review of the ongoing need for each medicine, a review on monitoring needs and an opportunity to support patients with their medicine taking

Management of medicines at discharge from hospital

• Work within existing practice systems to reconcile medicines following discharge from hospital, intermediate care and into care homes; identify and rectify unplanned changes; perform a clinical medication review; produce a post‑discharge medicines care plan including dose titration and booking of follow‑up tests, and working with patients and community pharmacists to ensure patients receive the medicines they need post discharge

Chronic Disease Management

• Provide support to nurses running chronic disease management clinics to answer prescribing and medicines management / review related queries.
• See patients in Chronic Disease management clinics and carry out a review of their condition using national Quality and Outcome Framework templates and guidance

CQC

• Work with the practices to ensure they are fully compliant with CQC requirements relating to medication management including identifying and auctioning appropriate patient safety updates etc.

Patient safety and Medicines Optimisation work

• Participate in patient safety initiatives such as Eclipse/RADAR medication safety alerts, PINCER initiatives, and any other initiatives identified at a local, regional or national level.
• Support the Medicines Optimisation Pharmacist and the Prescribing Lead on relevant Medicines Optimisation work, projects and clinical audit.

Key working relationships

• GPs, nurses and other practice staff
• GP prescribing lead
• Community pharmacists and support staff
• BNSSG Formulary Team

Responsibilities underpinning the role

• To plan and organise the post holders own workload in co‑ordination with the rest of the team
• To record, in line with Information Governance Policies and Legislation, personally generated information and use the practice clinical system to record any interaction with patients
• Personally generated information includes records relating to audit, practice procedures and staff training to be stored on the GP practice IT system.
• The clinical system will be used to maintain up to date, detailed records of all work carried out in the practice that involves a patient
• Maintain registration as a Pharmacist and comply with appropriate professional codes
• Maintain and develop professional competence and expertise, keep up to date with medical/ therapeutic evidence and opinion, and local and national service, legislation and policy developments relating to respiratory conditions.
• The post holder will abide by the GP practices operational policies and procedures including Health & Safety, Infection Control, Quality Assurance, Safeguarding Adults & Children, Complaints, Consent and Incident Reporting.

Code of conduct

Pharmacists must comply with the Code of Professional Conduct set by the General Pharmaceutical Council.

Professional Indemnity Insurance

Indemnity will be provided by the Clinical Negligence Scheme for General Practice

Confidentiality

• In the course of seeking treatment, patients entrust us with, or allow us to gather, sensitive information in relation to their health and other matters. They do so in confidence and have the right to expect that staff will respect their privacy and act appropriately
• In the performance of the duties outlined in this Job Description, the post-holder may have access to confidential information relating to patients and their carers and other healthcare workers. They may also have access to information relating to the practices as business organisations. All such information from any source is to be regarded as strictly confidential
• Information relating to patients, carers, colleagues, other healthcare workers may only be divulged to authorised persons in accordance with the GP Practice policies and procedures relating to confidentiality and the protection of personal and sensitive data

Health & Safety

The post-holder will assist in promoting and maintaining their own and others health, safety and security as defined in the GP Practice Health & Safety Policy, to include:

• Using personal security systems within the workplace according to the GP Practice guidelines
• Identifying the risks involved in work activities and undertaking such activities in a way that manages those risks
• Making effective use of training to update knowledge and skills
• Using appropriate infection control procedures, maintaining work areas in a tidy and safe way and free from hazards
• Reporting potential risks identified to the GP Practice Manager

Equality and Diversity

The post-holder will support the equality, diversity and rights of patients, carers and colleagues, to include:

Acting in a way that recognises the importance of peoples rights, interpreting them in a way that is consistent with the GP Practice procedures and policies, and current legislation

Respecting the privacy, dignity, needs and beliefs of patients, carers and colleagues

Behaving in a manner which is welcoming to and of the individual, is non‑judgmental and respects their circumstances, feelings priorities and rights.

Safeguarding

• The GP Practices are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, adults and young people. We expect all staff to be trained in adult and child safeguarding. This training will equip the post holder with the knowledge of what to do if they have concerns about the welfare of a child or adult

Personal/Professional Development

The post-holder will participate in any training programme implemented by the Practices as part of this employment, such training to include:

Participation in individual performance review, including taking responsibility for maintaining a record of own personal and/or professional development

Statutory and Mandatory training

Taking responsibility for own development, learning and performance and demonstrating skills and activities to others who are undertaking similar work

Quality

The post-holder will strive to maintain quality within the GP Practices, and will:

• Alert other team members to issues of quality and risk
• Assess own performance and take accountability for own actions, either directly or under supervision
• Contribute to the effectiveness of the team by reflecting on own and team activities and making suggestions on ways to improve and enhance the teams performance
• Work effectively with individuals in other agencies to meet patients needs
• Effectively manage own time, workload and resources

Communication

The post-holder should recognise the importance of effective communication within the team and will strive to:

• Communicate effectively with other team members
• Communicate effectively with patients and carers
• Recognise peoples needs for alternative methods of communication and respond accordingly
• Communicate with other NHS Bodies

Person Specification

Experience

• - In depth therapeutic and clinical knowledge and understanding of the principles of evidence based healthcare
• - An understanding of the core activities of GPs and general practices
• - Excellent interpersonal, influencing and negotiating skills
• - Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• - Demonstrate the ability to communicate complex and sensitive information in an understandable form to a variety of audiences
• - Is able to plan, manage, monitor advise and review general medicine optimisation issues in core areas for long term conditions.
• - Able to obtain and analyse complex technical information
• - Recognises priorities when problem solving and identifies deviations from the normal pattern and is able to refer to the GP when appropriate
• - Able to work under pressure and to meet deadlines
• - Produce timely and informative reports
• - Gain acceptance for recommendations and influence/motivate/persuade/ the audience to comply with the recommendations/agreed course of action where there may be significant barriers
• - Work effectively independently and as a team member
• - Demonstrates accountability for delivering professional expertise and direct service provision
• - Minimum of 2 years post qualification experience

Professional Registration

• - Registration with GPhC
• - Membership of Royal Pharmaceutical Society
• - A member of or working towards Faculty membership of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society

Qualifications

• - Independent prescriber

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.