Specialist Pharmacist - Palliative and End of Life Care

NHS; City Of London; On-site; GBP 45,000 - 55,000; Full time

Job summary

A prominent healthcare trust in the UK seeks a dynamic Specialist Pharmacist to lead clinical pharmacy services for Palliative and End of Life Care. The ideal candidate will have considerable experience as a clinical pharmacist, a postgraduate qualification in pharmacy, and a passion for improving patient outcomes at the end of life. This is a rewarding opportunity with responsibilities that include managing operational needs and engaging in quality improvement initiatives.

Qualifications

• Considerable experience as a clinical pharmacist practitioner in Palliative and End of Life Care.
• Experience of working in a specialist palliative care setting.
• Active participation in multidisciplinary health care research and audit.

Responsibilities

• Lead and deliver clinical pharmacy services for Palliative and End of Life Care.
• Manage operational and assurance-monitoring requirements.
• Support quality improvement initiatives and contribute to research.

Skills

Clinical reasoning and judgement

Influencing senior staff

Therapeutic communication

Clinical audit

Education

Postgraduate Certificate, Diploma or MSc in pharmacy practice

Registered pharmacist with General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)

Registered with the GPhC as a non-medical prescriber

Job description

Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust

Specialist Pharmacist – Palliative and End of Life Care

The closing date is 30 November 2025

We are looking for a dynamic and experienced Pharmacist to lead and deliver clinical pharmacy services for patients receiving Palliative and End of Life Care in hospital and in the community. This role offers the opportunity to work at the forefront of specialist pharmacy practice, supporting patients with life‑limiting conditions through expert medicines optimisation, service development, and multidisciplinary collaboration.

You will work closely with the Consultant Pharmacist and wider Palliative and End of Life teams to ensure safe, effective, and compassionate pharmaceutical care. The postholder will contribute to quality improvement, education, and research initiatives, and play a key role in shaping the future of PEOLC pharmacy services. This is a rewarding opportunity for a pharmacist with advanced clinical skills, leadership experience, and a passion for improving care at the end of life.

Main duties of the job

You will lead the delivery and evaluation of clinical pharmacy services patients receiving Palliative and End of Life Care, ensuring safe and cost‑effective use of medicines. Responsibilities include managing operational and assurance‑monitoring requirements, supporting quality improvement initiatives, prescribing within scope of practice, and contributing to research, audit, and education agendas. You will be expected to also undertake domiciliary medication reviews and co‑ordinate the implementation of pharmaceutical care plans to ensure that patients get the best outcomes and experience from taking medicines. You will act as a role model for specialist pharmacy practice and collaborate with internal and external stakeholders to promote best practice across all care settings.

For further information on the role and its requirements please refer to attached job description and person specification documents.

About us

Integrated Local Services provide a range of community and inpatient services for the communities of Lambeth and Southwark. Services provided include neighbourhood nursing, specialist rehabilitation & reablement, specialist palliative & end of life care, vulnerable adults and prevention services, and the @Home service. Services are delivered in various locations e.g. health centres, community bed‑based units, and patients’ homes. We work closely with teams at King’s College Hospital and with social, mental health and voluntary sectors. Our aim is to enable people to live healthy independent lives for as long as possible within their normal place of residence. Through close multi‑disciplinary relationships and new ways of working, the pharmacy team enables the service to make best use of capacity to help meet demand as well as strengthen existing relations with Adult Social Care. You will join a team of experienced pharmacists within GSTT who are driving medicines optimisation across Lambeth and Southwark. You will provide professional advice and work closely with multidisciplinary teams including community matrons, GPs, therapists, consultants, community pharmacists as well as other specialist and generalist healthcare and social care practitioners to optimise medicines use. The post offers a real opportunity to drive service development and improvement that is patient‑centred, through clinical leadership and innovation.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Registered pharmacist with General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)
• Registered with the GPhC as a non‑medical prescriber
• Postgraduate Certificate, Diploma or MSc in pharmacy practice

Experience

• Considerable experience as a clinical pharmacist practitioner in Palliative and End of Life Care
• Previous experience in delivering training and education at post‑graduate level
• Experience in the management of others
• Experience of working as a clinical pharmacist practitioner in a specialist palliative care setting or with palliative care teams
• Demonstration of active participation in multidisciplinary health care research, audit and quality improvement projects

Knowledge

• Understanding of national and local priorities
• Demonstrates expert clinical knowledge and skills
• Demonstrates awareness of and commitment to the clinical governance agenda
• Maintains a portfolio of practice
• Identifies a vision for the of pharmaceutical services to the Palliative and End of Life Care specialities across a range of settings.
• Undertakes own research
• Demonstrates the ability to reconcile national priorities with local realities

Skills

• Demonstrate the ability to appropriately recommend, substantiate and communicate therapeutic options in Palliative and End of Life Care patients
• Demonstrable use of clinical audit to improve practice
• Ability to influence senior pharmacy and medical staff, the multidisciplinary team and management
• The ability to identify and prioritise clinical work and work autonomously
• Demonstrates advanced level of clinical reasoning and judgement
• Can work in distressing and challenging situations including death and dying
• Integrates research evidence into practice
• Ensures ward pharmacists’ and the training needs of other pharmacy staff are identified and met
• Evaluates service provision
• Ability to identify and prioritise clinical pharmacy services
• Ability to evaluate training provision

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.

Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust