PCN - Clinical Pharmacist

National health service; Hasland; On-site; GBP 42,000 - 56,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

NHS Pension Scheme

27 days + Bank Holidays annual leave (

Professional/study leave

Job summary

Chesterfield and Dronfield Primary Care Network (PCN) is seeking an enthusiastic pharmacist to join its growing pharmacy team. You will work within clinical competencies to deliver structured medication reviews, optimise medicines, and support care across GP practices in the PCN.

Training on CPPE Primary Care Pharmacy Education Pathway (PCPEP) will be provided where needed. The role involves collaboration with senior pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, with a focus on improving patient care,

Responsibilities

• Deliver patient-facing structured medication reviews (SMRs) and medicines optimisation within a multidisciplinary primary care team.
• Support long-term condition management and medicines optimisation at transfer of care.
• Reconcile medicines, manage repeat prescribing requests, and provide clinical supervision and mentorship to junior staff.

Job description

Job summaryAre you a pharmacist
who is passionate about developing your knowledge and skills in general
practice, while making a meaningful difference to patient care?Our PCN continues to support its Arc Primary Care pharmacy
team with additional roles and resources, during this period of developing and
restructuring we are looking for clinical pharmacists to join the growing pharmacy
team, to work alongside our existing workforce of senior clinical pharmacists,
clinical pharmacists and pharmacy technicians.The
posts available are at:The Brimington Surgery, previous Winners of
the Primary Care Practice Team of the year, based on Church Street in Brimington,
a busy village on the outskirts of ChesterfieldInspire Health, whose in house pharmacy team,
including two experienced advanced pharmacists, support a broad range of
dynamic and enhanced roles for pharmacy professionals, based in Avenue House
Surgery 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.Whilst
experience of working in general practice and an independent prescriber
qualification are preferable, pharmacists with limited general practice
experience, including newly qualified pharmacists, would be considered.The post holders would be
supported in enrolling on, and completing, the CPPE Primary Care Pharmacy
Education Pathway (PCPEP), where not already completed.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will work within their clinical competencies as part of a multidisciplinary team to deliver high quality clinical medicines management. The role will include providing patient facing Structured Medication Reviews (SMRs), supporting the management of long term conditions, optimising medicines at transfer of care, and contributing to systems that promote safer prescribing. The post holder will also support the management of repeat prescription authorisations and reauthorisations, as well as acute prescription requests, ensuring prescribing remains safe, effective, and aligned with best practice. In undertaking this role, the post holder will address both the public health and wider social care needs of patients registered at GP practices within the Primary Care Network (PCN). They will work collaboratively with the wider practice and PCN teams to improve health outcomes and reduce healthcare inequalities. The post holder will receive clinical supervision, mentorship, and professional support from senior and lead clinical pharmacists, who will support the development, governance, and oversight of their role. This role is central to improving the quality of care, patient experience, and operational efficiency within general practice and therefore requires a high level of motivation, professionalism, and commitment to service improvement.

About us

1. Patient-facing / Remote Medicines SupportDeliver patient-facing medication review clinics, stratifying need across the full spectrum of review types from technical, medicines adherence reviews (including polypharmacy reviews) through to focal long-term condition reviews (see section 3) and holistic SMRs. Provide accessible support for patients with questions, queries, and concerns about their medicines.
2. Medicines-Related Clinical Support for Care HomesDeliver clinical medication reviews in collaboration with patients, care home staff, and the Ageing Well team, producing clear and evidencebased recommendations for the multidisciplinary team to support medicines optimisation, prescribing, and monitoring. Work collaboratively with care home staff and the Ageing Well team to optimise medicines management and promote safe, effective, and appropriate use of medicines, including updating medication at transfer of care and investigating and responding to requests for medication not on, or as on, repeat. This workstream is coordinated by the PCN's Pharmacy Hub for Assessment Services (PHASe), integrated within The Ageing Well Team, but practice-based pharmacists will need to liaise with the hub, communicating effectively, to ensure an efficienct and seamless care delivery service.
3. Long-Term Condition ClinicsDeliver reviews to patients with single 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 their medicines (i.e. medicines optimisation). Make appropriate recommendations to Senior Pharmacists or GPs for medicine improvement. Contribute to QOF achievement and IIF targets related to long term condition management.
4. Patient facing Domiciliary Medication ReviewsDeliver medication reviews to patients in care home or domiciliary settings, working within the PCN's Pharmacy Hub for Assessment Services (PHASe), integrated within The Ageing Well Team. For care home patients, medicines reconciliation and medication review is coordinated through the centralised pharmacy hub. The post holder will work within this hub structure, contributing to and drawing on hub-led clinical oversight, supervision, and workflow support, and producing recommendations for the multidisciplinary team on prescribing, deprescribing, and monitoring. In some practices, medication reviews for care home patients may be delivered outside of the central hub, and some reviews for care home or housebound patients may require home visits.
5. Risk stratificationIdentify cohorts of patients at increased risk of harm from medicines using agreed, preprepared practice clinical system searches, including prescribing and clinical decision support software such as Eclipse Live Radar 500 searches. Risks may be patientrelated, medicinerelated, or a combination of both. Where appropriate, pharmacy technicians will be accountable for reviewing and acting on the outcomes of these searches within their scope of competence, in accordance with agreed protocols. Clinical pharmacists will provide supervision and support where the management of highrisk patients falls outside the pharmacy technicians competence, and will assume responsibility during periods of leave or in exceptional circumstances.
6. Unplanned hospital admissionsReview the use of medicines most commonly associated with unplanned hospital admissions and readmissions through audit and individual patient reviews. Implement changes to reduce the prescribing of these medicines to high-risk patient groups.
7. Medicines ReconciliationReconcile medicines following communications from other health settings (e.g., hospital discharges, clinical letters from secondary care, private healthcare providers etc) including identifying, resolving and appropriately escalating unexplained changes to medicines when required. Work collaboratively with patients, carers and the wider MDT to ensure timely access to medicines and continuity of care including those requiring medicines compliance aids and care home residents. Provide mentorship, supervision, and appropriate delegation of medicines reconciliation activities to pharmacy technicians and junior pharmacists, including foundation pharmacists, in line with their competence and agreed governance arrangements.
8. Medicine Information & Advisory SupportRespond to relevant medicine-related enquiries from GPs, other network staff, other healthcare teams (e.g., community pharmacy) and patients with queries about medicines acting as a visible and accessible medicines expert within the PCN. Suggest and recommend evidence-based solutions. Provide appropriate follow-up where changes are made.
9. SignpostingEnsure that patients are referred to the appropriate healthcare professional for the appropriate level of care within an appropriate time period e.g., pathology results, common/minor ailments, acute conditions, long-term condition reviews etc. Collaborate with and refer to relevant non-clinicians e.g. social prescribing link workers to connect patients with non-clinical community support where wider determinants of health are contributing to medicines non-adherence or health inequalities.
10. Repeat prescribingManage the repeat prescribing reauthorisation process by reviewing patient requests for repeat prescriptions and reviewing medicines reaching review dates and flagging up those needing a review. Ensure patients have appropriate monitoring tests in place when required. Support the practice to reduce prescribing errors and promote safe, efficient repeat prescribing workflows.
11. Service developmentContribute pharmaceutical expertise to the development and implementation of new services that have medicinal components (e.g., advice on treatment pathways and patient information leaflets).
12. Information managementAnalyse, interpret and present medicines data to highlight issues and risks to support decision making.
13. Medicines quality improvementUndertake clinical audits of prescribing in areas directed by the GPs and the PCN team, feedback the results and implement changes in conjunction with the relevant practice team.
14. Medicines safetyImplement 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 by participating in significant event analysis (SEA), reporting incidents as appropriate, supporting learning from near-misses and medicines errors. Work with the practice team and PCN to embed a culture of medicines safety.
15. Implementation of local and national guidelines and formulary recommendationsMonitor practice prescribing against the local health economys RAG list and make recommendations to GPs for medicines that should be prescribed by hospital doctors (red drugs) or subject to shared care (amber drugs).
16. Education, Mentoring and Clinical SupervisionProvide education and training to primary healthcare team on therapeutics and medicines optimisation. Mentor, supervise and delegate, as appropriate, clinical workflow to pharmacy technicians and more junior pharmacists (including foundation pharmacists), to optimise skill-mix and aid team development.
17. Care Quality CommissionWork with the general practice teams to ensure the practices are compliant with CQC standards where medicines are involved.
18. Public healthSupport public health campaigns and provide specialist knowledge on all public health programs available to the general public.
19. Collaborative working arrangementsAs part of an integrated pharmacy team, foster and maintain collaborative working relationships with practice teams, ICB colleagues including medicines management pharmacy professionals, the Ageing WellTeam and social prescribing team, and all other relevant services across the PCN and other stakeholders as needed for the collective benefit the practice and its patients.

Job description

Job responsibilities

1. Patient-facing / Remote Medicines SupportDeliver patient-facing medication review clinics, stratifying need across the full spectrum of review types from technical, medicines adherence reviews (including polypharmacy reviews) through to focal long-term condition reviews (see section 3) and holistic SMRs. Provide accessible support for patients with questions, queries, and concerns about their medicines.
2. Medicines-Related Clinical Support for Care HomesDeliver clinical medication reviews in collaboration with patients, care home staff, and the Ageing Well team, producing clear and evidencebased recommendations for the multidisciplinary team to support medicines optimisation, prescribing, and monitoring. Work collaboratively with care home staff and the Ageing Well team to optimise medicines management and promote safe, effective, and appropriate use of medicines, including updating medication at transfer of care and investigating and responding to requests for medication not on, or as on, repeat. This workstream is coordinated by the PCN's Pharmacy Hub for Assessment Services (PHASe), integrated within The Ageing Well Team, but practice-based pharmacists will need to liaise with the hub, communicating effectively, to ensure an efficienct and seamless care delivery service.
3. Long-Term Condition ClinicsDeliver reviews to patients with single 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 their medicines (i.e. medicines optimisation). Make appropriate recommendations to Senior Pharmacists or GPs for medicine improvement. Contribute to QOF achievement and IIF targets related to long term condition management.
4. Patient facing Domiciliary Medication ReviewsDeliver medication reviews to patients in care home or domiciliary settings, working within the PCN's Pharmacy Hub for Assessment Services (PHASe), integrated within The Ageing Well Team. For care home patients, medicines reconciliation and medication review is coordinated through the centralised pharmacy hub. The post holder will work within this hub structure, contributing to and drawing on hub-led clinical oversight, supervision, and workflow support, and producing recommendations for the multidisciplinary team on prescribing, deprescribing, and monitoring. In some practices, medication reviews for care home patients may be delivered outside of the central hub, and some reviews for care home or housebound patients may require home visits.
5. Risk stratificationIdentify cohorts of patients at increased risk of harm from medicines using agreed, preprepared practice clinical system searches, including prescribing and clinical decision support software such as Eclipse Live Radar 500 searches. Risks may be patientrelated, medicinerelated, or a combination of both. Where appropriate, pharmacy technicians will be accountable for reviewing and acting on the outcomes of these searches within their scope of competence, in accordance with agreed protocols. Clinical pharmacists will provide supervision and support where the management of highrisk patients falls outside the pharmacy technicians competence, and will assume responsibility during periods of leave or in exceptional circumstances.
6. Unplanned hospital admissionsReview the use of medicines most commonly associated with unplanned hospital admissions and readmissions through audit and individual patient reviews. Implement changes to reduce the prescribing of these medicines to high-risk patient groups.
7. Medicines ReconciliationReconcile medicines following communications from other health settings (e.g., hospital discharges, clinical letters from secondary care, private healthcare providers etc) including identifying, resolving and appropriately escalating unexplained changes to medicines when required. Work collaboratively with patients, carers and the wider MDT to ensure timely access to medicines and continuity of care including those requiring medicines compliance aids and care home residents. Provide mentorship, supervision, and appropriate delegation of medicines reconciliation activities to pharmacy technicians and junior pharmacists, including foundation pharmacists, in line with their competence and agreed governance arrangements.
8. Medicine Information & Advisory SupportRespond to relevant medicine-related enquiries from GPs, other network staff, other healthcare teams (e.g., community pharmacy) and patients with queries about medicines acting as a visible and accessible medicines expert within the PCN. Suggest and recommend evidence-based solutions. Provide appropriate follow-up where changes are made.
9. SignpostingEnsure that patients are referred to the appropriate healthcare professional for the appropriate level of care within an appropriate time period e.g., pathology results, common/minor ailments, acute conditions, long-term condition reviews etc. Collaborate with and refer to relevant non-clinicians e.g. social prescribing link workers to connect patients with non-clinical community support where wider determinants of health are contributing to medicines non-adherence or health inequalities.
10. Repeat prescribingManage the repeat prescribing reauthorisation process by reviewing patient requests for repeat prescriptions and reviewing medicines reaching review dates and flagging up those needing a review. Ensure patients have appropriate monitoring tests in place when required. Support the practice to reduce prescribing errors and promote safe, efficient repeat prescribing workflows.
11. Service developmentContribute pharmaceutical expertise to the development and implementation of new services that have medicinal components (e.g., advice on treatment pathways and patient information leaflets).
12. Information managementAnalyse, interpret and present medicines data to highlight issues and risks to support decision making.
13. Medicines quality improvementUndertake clinical audits of prescribing in areas directed by the GPs and the PCN team, feedback the results and implement changes in conjunction with the relevant practice team.
14. Medicines safetyImplement 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 by participating in significant event analysis (SEA), reporting incidents as appropriate, supporting learning from near-misses and medicines errors. Work with the practice team and PCN to embed a culture of medicines safety.
15. Implementation of local and national guidelines and formulary recommendationsMonitor practice prescribing against the local health economys RAG list and make recommendations to GPs for medicines that should be prescribed by hospital doctors (red drugs) or subject to shared care (amber drugs).
16. Education, Mentoring and Clinical SupervisionProvide education and training to primary healthcare team on therapeutics and medicines optimisation. Mentor, supervise and delegate, as appropriate, clinical workflow to pharmacy technicians and more junior pharmacists (including foundation pharmacists), to optimise skill-mix and aid team development.
17. Care Quality CommissionWork with the general practice teams to ensure the practices are compliant with CQC standards where medicines are involved.
18. Public healthSupport public health campaigns and provide specialist knowledge on all public health programs available to the general public.
19. Collaborative working arrangementsAs part of an integrated pharmacy team, foster and maintain collaborative working relationships with practice teams, ICB colleagues including medicines management pharmacy professionals, the Ageing WellTeam and social prescribing team, and all other relevant services across the PCN and other stakeholders as needed for the collective benefit the practice and its patients.

Person Specification

Skills and Knowledge
Essential
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
Able to identify risk and assess/manage risk when working with individuals
Desirable
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
DesirableExperience of working in Primary Care
Other
Essential
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
EssentialMandatory registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council
DesirableCompletion/working towards CPPE Primary Care Pharmacy Education Pathway (PCPEP), Clinical Diploma, Independent Prescribing or currently working towards qualification
Disclosure and Barring Service CheckThis 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 Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see

Benefits of working with us

• NHS Pension Scheme, offering flexible retirement choices, an ill health retirement pension, life assurance and optional lump sum on retirement
• On appointment 27 days plus 8 Bank Holiday annual leave entitlement which rises annually with length of service up to 33 days (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

Chesterfield and Dronfield Primary Care Network (PCN) is one of the largest in the UK, delivering care to more than 100,000 patients across Chester