PCN - Clinical Pharmacist

Arc Primary Care; Chesterfield; On-site; GBP 48,000 - 53,000; Full time

Job summary

Arc Primary Care seeks clinical pharmacists to join its expanding team across Brimington Surgery and Inspire Health sites near Chesterfield. You will deliver high-quality medicines management in general practice, with CPPEP pathway support and supervision from senior pharmacists.

Applicants with GP experience or independent prescribing are preferred, but newly qualified pharmacists will be considered. Role includes service development and close collaboration with PCN teams.

Qualifications

• GPhC registration is mandatory.
• PCPEP completion or active progression is required.
• Clinical Diploma is preferred and Independent Prescribing is desirable.

Responsibilities

• Deliver patient-facing medication reviews and SMRs within the PCN.
• Support long-term condition management and medicines optimisation.
• Reconcile and monitor repeat prescribing and urgent requests.
• Provide medicines information and consultations to GP practices and care homes.
• Mentor junior staff and contribute to governance and safety initiatives.

Education

GPhC registration

CPPE Primary Care Pharmacy Education Pathway (PCPEP)

Clinical Pharmac Diploma

Independent Prescribing (or in training)

Job description

Are you a pharmacistwho is passionate about developing your knowledge and skills in generalpractice, while making a meaningful difference to patient care?

Our PCN continues to support its Arc Primary Care pharmacyteam with additional roles and resources, during this period of developing andrestructuring we are looking for clinical pharmacists to join the growing pharmacyteam, to work alongside our existing workforce of senior clinical pharmacists,clinical pharmacists and pharmacy technicians.

Theposts available are at:

The Brimington Surgery, previous Winners ofthe Primary Care Practice Team of the year, based on Church Street in Brimington,a busy village on the outskirts of Chesterfield

Inspire Health, whose in house pharmacy team,including two experienced advanced pharmacists, support a broad range ofdynamic and enhanced roles for pharmacy professionals, based in Avenue HouseSurgery in central Chesterfield and the Hasland Medical Centre.

We are looking for clinicians who are committed to improving patient care and passionate about clinical pharmacy.

Whilstexperience of working in general practice and an independent prescriberqualification are preferable, pharmacists with limited general practiceexperience, including newly qualified pharmacists, would be considered.

The post holders would besupported in enrolling on, and completing, the CPPE Primary Care PharmacyEducation Pathway (PCPEP), where not already completed.

Main duties of the job

The post holder willwork within their clinical competencies as part of a multidisciplinary team todeliver high quality clinical medicines management.

The role will includeproviding patient facing Structured Medication Reviews (SMRs), supporting the management of long termconditions, optimising medicines at transfer of care, and contributing tosystems that promote safer prescribing. The post holder will also support themanagement of repeat prescription authorisations and reauthorisations, as wellas acute prescription requests, ensuring prescribing remains safe, effective,and aligned with best practice.

In undertaking thisrole, the post holder will address both the public health and wider social careneeds of patients registered at GP practices within the Primary Care Network (PCN). They will work collaboratively with the widerpractice and PCN teams to improve health outcomes and reduce healthcareinequalities.

The post holder willreceive clinical supervision, mentorship, and professional support from seniorand lead clinical pharmacists, who will support the development, governance,and oversight of their role.

This role is centralto improving the quality of care, patient experience, and operationalefficiency within general practice and therefore requires a high level ofmotivation, professionalism, and commitment to service improvement.

About us

TheChesterfield and Dronfield Primary Care Network (PCN) is one of the largest inthe UK, delivering care to more than 100,000 patients across Chesterfield andDronfield, on the doorstep of the Peak District.

We deliver enhanced services within the PCN designed to support and enhance the services offered by our member GP Practices within Chesterfield. We do this by employing staff to work through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme and finding innovative and sustainable solutions to the changing needs of the Practices; we bid for contracts to help tackle health inequalities and drive up standards of care within the Chesterfield and Dronfield locality.

Our mission: Committed to high quality collaborative person-centred care. Delivered with integrity and transparency, improving health and wellbeing for all.

Benefits of working with us:

• NHS Pension Scheme, offering flexible retirementchoices, an ill health retirement pension, life assurance and optional lump sumon retirement
• On appointment 27 days plus 8 Bank Holidayannual leave entitlement which rises annually with length of service up to 33days (pro rata for part time staff)
• Up 5 days professional/study leave per annum(pro rata)
• Access to Employee Assistance Programme
• Blue light Card Discount

Arc Primary Care is not an Agenda for Change organisation but does offer structured meritorious pay progression.

Interviews for this post willbe held at Dunston Innovation Centre, face to face, on Tuesday 13 October.

Job responsibilities

Deliverpatient-facing medication review clinics, stratifying need across the fullspectrum of review types from technical, medicines adherence reviews (includingpolypharmacy reviews) through to focal long-term condition reviews (see section3) and holistic SMRs. Provide accessible support for patients with questions, queries,and concerns about their medicines.

2.Medicines-Related Clinical Support for Care Homes

Deliverclinical medication reviews in collaboration with patients, care home staff,and the Ageing Well team, producing clear and evidencebased recommendationsfor the multidisciplinary team to support medicines optimisation, prescribing,and monitoring. Work collaboratively with care home staff and the Ageing Wellteam to optimise medicines management and promote safe, effective, and appropriateuse of medicines, including updating medication at transfer of care andinvestigating and responding to requests for medication not on, or as on,repeat. This workstream is coordinated by the PCN'sPharmacy Hub for Assessment Services (PHASe), integrated within The Ageing WellTeam, but practice-based pharmacists will need to liaise with the hub,communicating effectively, to ensure an efficienct and seamless care deliveryservice.

3.Long-Term Condition Clinics

Deliver reviews to patients withsingle or multiple medical problems where medicine optimisation is required (e.g., respiratory,cardiovascular-reno-metabolic). Review the on-going need for each medicine,monitoring needs and support patients in getting the best use of theirmedicines (i.e. medicines optimisation). Make appropriate recommendations toSenior Pharmacists or GPs for medicine improvement. Contribute to QOFachievement and IIF targets related to long-term condition management.

4.Patient facing Domiciliary Medication Reviews

Delivermedication reviews to patients in care home or domiciliary settings, workingwithin the PCN's Pharmacy Hub for Assessment Services (PHASe), integratedwithin The Ageing Well Team. For care home patients, medicines reconciliationand medication review is coordinated through the centralised pharmacy hub. Thepost holder will work within this hub structure, contributing to and drawing onhub-led clinical oversight, supervision, and workflow support, and producingrecommendations for the multidisciplinary team on prescribing, deprescribing,and monitoring. In some practices, medication reviews for care home patientsmay be delivered outside of the central hub, and some reviews for care home orhousebound patients may require home visits.

5. Riskstratification

Identify cohorts of patients atincreased risk of harm from medicines using agreed, preprepared practice clinical system searches, includingprescribing and clinical decision support software such as Eclipse Live Radar500 searches. Risks may be patientrelated, medicinerelated, or a combinationof both.

Whereappropriate, pharmacy technicians will be accountable for reviewing and actingon the outcomes of these searches within their scope of competence, inaccordance with agreed protocols. Clinical pharmacists will provide supervisionand support where the management of highrisk patients falls outside thepharmacy technicians competence, and will assume responsibility during periodsof leave or in exceptional circumstances.

6. Unplannedhospital admissions

Review the use of medicines most commonlyassociated with unplanned hospital admissions and readmissions through auditand individual patient reviews. Implementchanges to reduce the prescribing of these medicines to high-riskpatient groups.

Reconcile medicines followingcommunications from other health settings (e.g., hospital discharges, clinicalletters from secondary care, private healthcare providers etc) includingidentifying, resolving and appropriately escalating unexplained changes tomedicines when required. Work collaboratively with patients, carers and thewider MDT to ensure timely access to medicines and continuity of care includingthose requiring medicines compliance aids and care home residents.

Provide mentorship, supervision,and appropriate delegation of medicines reconciliation activities to pharmacytechnicians and junior pharmacists, including foundation pharmacists, in linewith their competence and agreed governance arrangements.

8. MedicineInformation & Advisory Support

Respondto relevant medicine-related enquiries from GPs, other network staff, otherhealthcare teams (e.g., community pharmacy) and patients with queries aboutmedicines acting as a visible and accessible medicines expertwithin the PCN.Suggest and recommend evidence-based solutions.Provide appropriate follow-up where changes are made.

9. Signposting

Ensure that patients are referredto the appropriate healthcare professional for the appropriate level of carewithin an appropriate time period e.g., pathology results, common/minorailments, acute conditions, long-term condition reviews etc. Collaborate with and refer to relevantnon-clinicians e.g. social prescribing link workers to connect patients withnon-clinical community support where wider determinants of health arecontributing to medicines non-adherence or health inequalities.

10. Repeatprescribing

Manage the repeat prescribingreauthorisation process by reviewing patient requests for repeat prescriptionsand reviewing medicines reaching review dates and flagging up those needing areview. Ensure patients have appropriate monitoring tests in place when required. Support the practice to reduceprescribing errors and promote safe, efficient repeat prescribing workflows.

11. Servicedevelopment

Contribute pharmaceutical expertise to the development and implementation of new services that have medicinalcomponents (e.g., advice on treatment pathways and patient informationleaflets).

12. Informationmanagement

Analyse, interpret and present medicines datato highlight issues and risks to support decision making.

13. Medicinesquality improvement

Undertake clinical audits ofprescribing in areas directed by the GPs and the PCN team, feedback the resultsand implement changes in conjunction with the relevant practice team.

Implement changes to medicines that result from MHRA alerts,product withdrawal and other local and national guidance. Contribute to the practice's and PCNs patient safety agenda byparticipating in significant event analysis (SEA), reporting incidents asappropriate, supporting learning from near-misses and medicines errors. Workwith the practice team and PCN to embed a culture of medicines safety.

15. Implementationof local and national guidelines and formulary recommendations

Monitor practice prescribingagainst the local health economys RAG list and make recommendations to GPs formedicines that should be prescribed by hospital doctors (red drugs) or subjectto shared care (amber drugs).

16. Education,Mentoring and Clinical Supervision

Provide education and training to primary healthcare team ontherapeutics and medicines optimisation. Mentor, supervise and delegate, asappropriate, clinical workflow to pharmacy technicians and more juniorpharmacists (including foundation pharmacists), to optimise skill-mix and aidteam development.

17. CareQuality Commission

Work with the general practice teams to ensurethe practices are compliant with CQC standards where medicines are involved.

Support public health campaigns and provide specialist knowledge on allpublic health programs available to the general public.

19. Collaborativeworking arrangements

As part of an integrated pharmacyteam, foster and maintain collaborative working relationships with practiceteams, ICB colleagues including medicines management pharmacy professionals,the Ageing Well

Team and social prescribing team,and all other relevant services across the PCN and other stakeholders as neededfor the collective benefit the practice and its patients.

Person Specification

Skills and Knowledge

• Demonstrates understanding of, and conforms to, relevant standards of practice and professional and organisational policies and procedures
• Awareness of common acute and long-term conditions that are likely to be seen in general practice
• Excellent Interpersonal, influencing & negotiating skills, to make shared decisions in situations where barriers to this may be present
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to communicate complex and sensitive information clearly and appropriately to a range of audiences, adapting communication to meet different needs and levels of understanding (e.g. patients).
• Recognises priorities when problem solving and identifies deviations from the normal pattern and able to recognise limitations of own competence, referring to more senior clinical colleagues when appropriate
• Able to work under pressure and meet deadlines, including prioritisation, time-keeping, adaptability, self-motivation and sustainable working, including when resource levels change.
• Work effectively independently and as a team member
• Ability to identify risk and assess/manage risk when working with individuals
• In depth therapeutic & clinical knowledge and an understanding of evidence-based medicine, clinical terminology, medicines optimisation and shared decision-making
• An appreciation of GPs and General Practice, including the relationship between GP, PCNs and ICBs in the context of the larger NHS and NHS funding.
• Experience of collaborative working and building relationships across a variety of organisations
• Able to plan, manage, monitor, advise & review general medicines optimisation issues in core areas for long term conditions (LTCs)
• Knowledge of IT systems, including ability to use clinical systems e.g. EMIS/SystmOne, word processing skills, spreadsheets and emails to communicate effectively, document consultations and code accurately and safely, and produce timely and accurate reports
• Able to obtain and analyse complex technical information with accuracy, appropriate management of errors and logical innovation of solutions

Experience

• Experience of working in Primary Care

Other

• Meets DBS reference standards and has a clear criminal record, in line with the law on spent convictions
• Appropriate Immunisation Status
• Access to own transport and ability to travel across the locality when required e.g. meetings or visiting care homes

Qualifications

• Mandatory registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council
• Completion/working towards CPPE Primary Care Pharmacy Education Pathway (PCPEP)
• Clinical Diploma
• Independent Prescribing or currently working towards qualification

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.

£48,035.66 to £53,390 a yearDepending on experience

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Full-time,Part-time,Job share,Flexible working