Lead Pharmacist for Cancer and Palliative Care

National Health Service; Ashford; On-site; GBP 37,000 - 53,000; Full time

Job summary

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust is seeking a motivated pharmacist to join the Cancer and Palliative Care pharmacy team at Queen Elizabeth Hospital. You will deliver a safe, effective clinical service and support leadership across the Cancer Services.

You will hold GPhC registration with a clinical pharmacy diploma, plus hospital experience in cancer/palliative care, and supervise other pharmacists. Clinical governance and service improvements are part of the role.

Qualifications

• GPhC-registered pharmacist with a postgraduate diploma in clinical pharmacy or equivalent, substantial hospital clinical pharmacy experience.
• Experience in cancer and/or palliative care; BOPA Passport at 2b/2c haematology and 2b/2c oncology.
• Strong communication skills and ability to supervise and develop others; able to work independently and with a multidisciplinary team.

Responsibilities

• Lead day-to-day leadership and management of Cancer Services at QEH.
• Coordinate and deliver a responsive, proactive clinical pharmacy service across wards and clinics.
• Support supervision and development of pharmacists and junior staff.
• Provide specialist medicines advice and verify chemotherapy prescriptions.
• Contribute to education, training, audits and medicines safety initiatives.
• Support cost-effective use of medicines and governance improvements.

Skills

Clinical pharmacy

Communication skills

Leadership and supervision

Independent working

Team collaboration

Education

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

GPhC registration

Postgraduate Diploma in Clinical Pharmacy

BOPA Passport (2b/2c haematology & oncology)

CPD to maintain fitness to practice

Tools

Microsoft Office

Job description

We are looking for a motivated and patient-centred pharmacist to join our Cancer and Palliative Care pharmacy team at Queen Elizabeth Hospital. This role offers the opportunity to provide specialist clinical care while supporting the day-to-day leadership and development of the service.

Main duties

Key duties include delivering a safe, effective and responsive clinical pharmacy service to patients across cancer and palliative care wards, day units and clinics. Working closely with the multidisciplinary team, you will provide specialist advice on medicines, support the clinical verification of chemotherapy prescriptions and contribute to treatment protocols and prescribing guidelines. You will also help ensure continuity of medicines-related care between hospital and community services. You will support the supervision and development of rotational pharmacists and other pharmacy staff, contribute to education and training, and help drive improvements in medicines safety and service quality. The role also includes supporting audit, clinical governance and the cost-effective use of medicines.

You will be a GPhC-registered pharmacist with a postgraduate diploma in clinical pharmacy or equivalent, substantial hospital clinical pharmacy experience and demonstrable experience in cancer and/or palliative care. You will have the BOPA Passport at 2b/2c haematology and 2b/2c oncology. Strong clinical judgement, effective communication skills and experience of supervising and developing others are essential, alongside the ability to work independently and collaboratively.

About us

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust is a community focused provider of local and acute care, providing high quality services to over one million people living across the London boroughs of Lewisham, Greenwich and Bexley. With a turnover of around 700 million, we provide services at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich, University Hospital Lewisham and a range of community settings in Lewisham. We also provide some services at Queen Mary's Hospital in Sidcup. The Trust has 7,500 staff and we have recently invested in our workforce to grow our establishment across a number of key services. In 2020 we won a London NHS Parliamentary Award in recognition of a wide range of initiatives to make the organisation a great place to work. We are accredited as a flexible working employer offering a number of flexible working options for staff. We are also accredited as a London Living Wage employer for our substantive, bank and contractors.

Salary and contract

• OtherSalary 32.50 an hour
• ContractBank
• Working pattern Flexible working

Job responsibilities

• 1. To be responsible for the day to day leadership and management of Cancer Services at QEH.
• 2. To be responsible for the coordination and delivery of a responsive, proactive, patient-focused clinical pharmacy service to the Surgery and Cancer division as well as Allied Clinical Services/Medicine division across the Trust. This will include the promotion of safe, effective and cost effective drug use to facilitate patient admission and enhance continuity of care across the primary and secondary care interface.
• 3. To support the Lead Pharmacist Technical Services (UHL) and the Technical Services Manager in the implementation of technical service developments at QEH.
• 4. To support the division in managing their drugs budget and act as the point of liaison for any service developments that involves medicines or pharmacy services in Oncology and Palliative Care.
• 5. To act as a role model and provide a consistently high standard of pharmaceutical service to patients in line with the Trust and Departmental objectives.
• 6. To provide operational and clinical support to pharmacy developments as dictated by trust, departmental and service objectives. This includes supervision, training and support to junior pharmacists, pre-registration pharmacists and other pharmacy staff as necessary.
• 7. To deputise for the Principal Pharmacist for Cancer Services & Palliative Care as required.
• 8. To participate in the front-line provision of Pharmacy Services as appropriate and when required. To act as a clinical pharmacist in an appropriate area and participate in consultant ward rounds as required.
• 9. To be registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council as a pharmacist independent prescriber.
• 10. To practice as a pharmacist independent prescriber, where appropriate to improve patient care and safety, and to continue to develop the role of pharmacist independent prescriber within the specialty.
• 11. To act as a clinical role model for other pharmacists within the team and demonstrate the ability to provide service that ensures the safe, clinically effective and cost efficient use of drugs and the ability to check clinically screened dispensed prescriptions.
• 12. To provide a safe and patient-focused clinical pharmacy service to wards, day units and clinics across the Trust. This includes undertaking medicines reconciliation, assessing pharmaceutical needs, assessing and facilitating the use of Patients Own Drugs, ensuring appropriate drug supply, maintaining both the One Stop Dispensing system and ward based dispensing service by pharmacy staff.
• 13. To demonstrate an intuitive grasp of situations based on knowledge, expertise and understanding and to make decisions about drug therapy with limited information.
• 14. To lead the training programme within Cancer and Palliative Care for pharmacists providing service to wards and day units across the Trust to ensure efficient and safe provision of clinical pharmacy service.

Qualifications

Essential Qualifications

• B. Pharm / M. Pharm / BSc (Pharmacy) or equivalent.
• Professional registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC).
• Postgraduate Diploma in either Clinical Pharmacy or General Pharmacy Practice (or equivalent).
• Mandatory CPD to maintain fitness to practice.
• BOPA Passport at 2b/2c haematology and 2b/2c oncology.

Desirable Qualifications

• Other postgraduate qualifications relevant to pharmacy practice, such as management or education & training qualifications.
• Postgraduate Certificate in Independent Prescribing.
• Registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council as an Independent Prescriber.

Experience

Essential Experience

• Substantial post registration experience in hospital clinical pharmacy practice with demonstrable experience of working within cancer/ palliative care.
• Demonstrable experience in supervising others.
• Demonstrable experience in managing staff/ teams.
• Demonstrable experience in the delivery of formal education and training at postgraduate level.
• Demonstrable experience in co-ordinating and leading on clinical audit.
• Demonstrable experience of protocol/ guideline development.

Desirable Experience

• Demonstrable clinical experience within the specialism of acute medicine.
• Experience of disciplinary matters and be able to impart results from them to staff in an appropriate and considered manner.

Knowledge and Skills

• Knowledge of relevant local and national standards and regulations associated with the provision of clinical pharmacy services especially cancer palliative care.
• 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 including the ability to delegate appropriately.
• Ability to think strategically.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate complex information effectively using clear written and spoken English and overcome barriers to understanding.
• Self-motivation and the ability to motivate others.
• Sound clinical reasoning and judgement and ability to influence clinicians, nursing and other colleagues.
• Applies sound professional judgement to legal and ethical issues.
• Ability to work positively and calmly under pressure.
• Previous service and clinical audit.
• Proficient in all Microsoft Office software with proven computer literacy and IT skills including Email Word processing Spreadsheets Databases.
• Use of search engines medical databases to retrieve information.
• Demonstrated accurate numeric skills.
• Ability to manage difficult and complex issues or refer appropriately.

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.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Employer details

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust

Address: Queen Elizabeth Hospital NHS Trust, Stadium Road, London, SE18 4QH, United Kingdom