Senior Pharmacist Medicines Information, Governance and Safety

LEWISHAM AND GREENWICH NHS TRUST; London; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

An established healthcare provider is seeking a dedicated Medicines Information Pharmacist to join their dynamic team. This role offers a unique opportunity to enhance your skills in a supportive environment while delivering vital MI services. You will be responsible for answering complex queries, training junior staff, and ensuring safe and effective medication use. Join a forward-thinking institution committed to community health and professional development, where your contributions will make a significant impact on patient care and safety.

Qualifications

• Minimum 2.5 years' experience in hospital pharmacy.
• Postgraduate qualification in pharmacy or working towards one.

Responsibilities

• Provide enquiry answering service for healthcare professionals.
• Support day-to-day running of the MI Centre.
• Contribute to structured training in MI for trainees.

Skills

Clinical Pharmacy

Communication Skills

Medicines Information

Teamwork

Education

B. Pharm / M. Pharm / BSc (Pharmacy)

Postgraduate Certificate in Clinical Pharmacy

Job description

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Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, (LGT), is a community-focused provider of local and acute care, delivering high-quality services to over one million people living across the London boroughs of Lewisham, Greenwich, and Bexley. We provide whole-life care and are here to support our communities to live healthier lives as well as taking care of them when they need us the most.

Employing almost 7,500 colleagues, affectionately known as Team LGT, we provide services at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich, University Hospital Lewisham, and at over a dozen community settings in Lewisham. We also provide some services at Queen Mary's Hospital in Sidcup.

We have recently launched our new vision and values to mark the LGT10 - the tenth anniversary of our Trust forming in 2013. Our trust vision is to be exceptional. In the quality of our patient care; our support for colleagues; and in the difference we make through our partnerships and in our communities.

To achieve this we value Respect, Compassion, and Inclusion; Being accountable over staying comfortable; Listening over always knowing best; and Succeeding together over achieving alone. You can read more about our visions and values here

Our hospitals and community sites provide a wide range of inpatient and outpatient services, as well as emergency and planned care. The Trust is rated as "good" or "outstanding" in over three-quarters of the services inspected by the Care Quality Commission.

Every year our work includes performing 10,000 procedures in our theatres; bringing seven and a half thousand new lives into the world; carrying out 570,000 visits to patients in their homes or communities and providing emergency care for more than 300,000 patients arriving in our busy Urgent and Emergency Departments.

LGT is a centre for the education and training of medical students enrolled with King's College London's GKT School of Medical Education. We are a training centre for nurses, midwives and allied health professionals. We are pioneering new roles that will support the changing needs of our patients and are one of the largest employers of physician associates in the country.

We are committed to working with our partners to deliver the best outcomes for our local communities. This means playing an active role in the South East London Integrated Care System (ICS), and in formal partnerships including the South East London Acute Provider Collaborative, provider partnerships with our local mental health trusts and borough-based boards of the ICS in Bexley, Greenwich and Lewisham.

Job overview

We are seeking an enthusiastic and motivated pharmacist to join our dynamic and busy Medicines Information (MI) Centre at Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust. This is an excellent opportunity for a pharmacist wishing to develop their medicines information knowledge and skills within a supportive environment.

The post is based at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich and involves delivering a broad range of local and regional MI services. Our centre is one of only two MI centres in South East London and plays a key role in promoting the safe, effective, and evidence-based use of medicines.

About You

The ideal candidate will:
• Have a minimum of 2.5 years' post-registration experience in a hospital pharmacy setting.
• Hold a postgraduate qualification in pharmacy (or be working towards one).
• Demonstrate strong clinical and communication skills.
• Be committed to personal development and contributing to service improvement.

Main duties of the job

Main Duties of the Job

As a Medicines Information Pharmacist, you will:
• Provide an enquiry answering service for healthcare professionals and patients across the Trust, responding to a range of queries from complex clinical issues to medicines optimisation and safety concerns.
• Support the day-to-day running of the MI Centre and deputise for the Lead Pharmacist in their absence.
• Contribute to the delivery of structured training in MI to pre-registration trainees and junior pharmacists.
• Maintain a regular clinical pharmacy commitment on a designated ward.
• Support patient safety, cost-effective prescribing, and adherence to best practice through evidence-based advice and collaboration with multidisciplinary teams.

Working for our organisation

Our people are our greatest asset. When we feel supported and happy at work, this positivity reaches those very people we are here for, the patients. Engaged employees perform at their best and our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) initiatives contribute to cultivate a culture of engagement. We have four staff networks, a corporate EDI Team and a suite of programmes and events which aim to insert the 5 aspirations:

1. Improving representation at senior levels of staff with disabilities, from black, Asian, and ethnic minorities background, identify as LGBTQ+ and women, through improved recruitment and leadership development
2. Widening access (anchor institution) and employability
3. Improving the experience of staff with disability
4. Improving the EDI literacy and confidence of trust staff through training and development
5. Making equalities mainstream

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Job Summary:

1. To support and deputise for the Lead Pharmacist Medicines Information

2. To provide systematic training in MI skills to pre-registration students and junior staff rotating through MI

3. To participate in the enquiry answering service at LGT and training of staff in accordance with established policies and procedures.

4. To provide a high quality, evidence-based clinical pharmacy service

5. To assist in the training of pharmacy staff, nursing and medical staff

6. To support the Principal Pharmacist Medication Safety & Governance in the in investigation and management of medication incidents

7. To support the Lead Pharmacist Formulary in the management of formulary issues within the Trust

Duties and Responsibilities

Leadership & Service Development

1. To deputise for the Lead MI pharmacist

2. To apply professional expertise and judgment to the receiving and answering of enquiries regarding drug therapy from professionals and the public within primary and secondary care to ensure advice given is evidence based, timely, accurate, unbiased and evaluated.

3. To attend, in the absence of the Lead MI pharmacist, relevant regional and national MI meetings

4. Maintain and use UKMI recommended medicines information resources, including the use of MI Databank.

5. Maintain appropriate enquiry records and workload statistics using MI Databank.

6. To supervise junior staff in medicines information providing advice and facilitation as required.

7. To maintain standards of service as part of the national medicines information network as per UKMI workbook.

8. Participate in quality assurance of the medicines information service by regular audit of the standards of enquiry answering

9. To contribute to risk management and clinical governance issues

10. To assist with production of drug evaluations for the Medicines Management Committee as requested by the Lead Pharmacist Formulary.

Clinical Services & Patient Care

1. To be responsible for the provision of a clinical pharmacy service to a specified area

2. To perform medication reconciliation, screen prescriptions and provide advice on the management of medicines to healthcare professionals and patients.

3. To influence prescribers appropriately to promote good prescribing practice and medicines management to enhance the quality of patient care.

4. To provide specialist advice and recommendations to other healthcare staff on matters related to the use of medicines.

5. To participate in Consultant or Specialist Nurse-led ward rounds when required

6. To demonstrate expert clinical and pharmaceutical knowledge required to produce clinical and technological documentation in an accurate, concise and timely manner.

7. To interpret complex drug and patient information and make decisions with limited information

8. To demonstrate advanced level of clinical reasoning and judgment

9. To demonstrate professional accountability to all patients.

10. To contribute to the development of clinical guidelines.

11. To follow legal, ethical, professional and employers codes of conduct.

Risk Management & Governance

1. To contribute to improving the reporting of adverse drug events and medication incidents within the Trust in conjunction with other healthcare professionals.

2. To support the investigation of medication related safety incidents and formulation/delivery of actions plans across the Trust to address problems identified where appropriate

3. To promote effective prescribing in the Trust following formulary and NICE guidance

4. To contribute to the development and implementation of strategies to improve safe medicines use in high risk areas throughout the Trust.

5. To promote the adherence to Trust policies, guidelines and protocol

6. To demonstrate awareness and commitment to the Trust's Clinical Governance Agenda

7. To identify new prescribing practices that may impact on the drug budget (horizon scanning).

Person specification

Qualifications & Training

Essential criteria

• B. Pharm / M. Pharm / BSc (Pharmacy) or equivalent
• Professional registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)
• Postgraduate Certificate in either Clinical Pharmacy or General Pharmacy Practice (or equivalent)
• Mandatory CPD to maintain fitness to practice.

Desirable criteria

• Postgraduate Diploma in General Pharmacy Practice (or equivalent)

Experience

Essential criteria

• Approximately 2 years post-registration experience in hospital pharmacy.
• Demonstrable experience in clinical pharmacy practice covering a broad range of specialities.
• Supervision and training of others
• Examples of Clinical Audit and Literature Evaluations

Desirable criteria

• Previous experience of delivering formal education and training sessions.
• Development of evidence based guidelines
• Experience in working in Medicines Information, enquiry answering and drug evaluation

Knowledge & Skills

Essential criteria

• Ability to work on own initiative and effectively as part of a team both within pharmacy and a multidisciplinary environment
• Ability to prioritise and plan work effectively alone and for a team.
• Ability to contribute to the planning of service developments within a department
• Demonstrated ability to communicate complex information effectively using clear written and spoken English and overcome barriers to understanding
• Ability to establish and maintain rapport with medical, nursing and other colleagues
• Ability to work positively and calmly under pressure
• Demonstrate sound clinical knowledge and the ability to apply it in practice
• Demonstrate ability to ensure safe and effective use of medicines for patients
• Knowledge of the requirements of national organisations involved in Medicines Information i.e.UKMi

We reserve the right to close the post before the stated closing date, please apply early. We do not contact applicants with the outcome of the shortlisting. If you have been shortlisted, you will receive an invite to an assessment day or interview.

As a local employer and anchor institution we work closely with our community to recruit locally and we welcome applications from the widest variety of people to ensure our workforce are reflective of the local communities which we serve. We encourage all suitable candidates to apply including if you are Black, Asian or other ethnic minorities, live with a disability (visible or not) or are LGBT+. We have a number of active staff networks including Disability, LGBT+, Multicultural Inclusion and Women's staff networks to bring staff together and celebrate diversity across our whole workforce.

Please note, not all roles will meet the criteria for a skilled worker visa.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Documents to download

• Job Description & Person Spec (PDF, 304.8KB)
• Working at LGT (PDF, 4.2MB)
• Visa and Certificate of Sponsorship Information for Applicants (PDF, 3.8MB)