Specialist Pharmacist - Proactive Frailty & Complex Care Team

NHS; Islington; On-site; GBP 51,000 - 59,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading healthcare provider seeks a 'Specialist Pharmacist' for the Proactive Frailty and Complex Care Team in Islington. This role involves conducting comprehensive medication reviews, contributing to the strategic development of services, and ensuring high standards of clinical practice while working collaboratively with a multidisciplinary team.

Qualifications

• Experience in multidisciplinary working.
• Up to date clinical knowledge of long-term conditions.
• Experience of developing clinical policies/guidelines.

Responsibilities

• Conduct comprehensive medication reviews in patients' homes.
• Collaborate with team members and community pharmacies.
• Engage in the strategic development of the service.

Skills

Multidisciplinary teamwork

Clinical knowledge of complex care

Elderly care experience

Medication reviews

Good communication skills

Education

MPharm degree or equivalent

Relevant professional qualification

Completion of a certificate in Pharmacy Practice

Post graduate diploma in General Pharmacy Practice

Job description

Specialist Pharmacist - Proactive Frailty & Complex Care Team

The Proactive Frailty and Complex Care Team (PROFACCT) is a multidisciplinary service focusing on comprehensive geriatric assessments and complex care reviews for patients in Islington. The service comprises of physiotherapists, pharmacists, nurses, administrators and an ageUK navigator with clinical input from consultant geriatricians and a specialist GP in geriatrics.

The aims of the service include

- To deliver person-centred, proactive integrated care to frail older people and patients with complex care needs.

- To advocate for this vulnerable group and enable equality of access to existing acute and community services

- To increase their time spent at home with better support and advanced care planning

The successful candidate will also have the opportunity to input into the strategic development of the service and help shape proactive and complex care in Islington.

Main duties of the job

Main Duties

1. To carry out comprehensive medication reviews for patients in their own homes.

2. To work in collaboration with the other members of team

3. To do proactive phone screening of patients and undertake initial assessments as part of a comprehensive geriatric assessment

4. To work in collaboration with community pharmacies and any other healthcare/social care workers involved in the patient's care

5. To attend a consultant-led MDT meetings to discuss patient caseload

6. To discuss any medication queries with a consultant as needed.

7. To document findings on patient records and make recommendations to the GP

8. To give advice to other team members regarding medications as needed

9. To follow up that recommendations have been actioned as necessary

10. To liaise with hospital pharmacy teams as necessary, for example when seeing patients who have been discharged from hospital

11. To engage in the strategic development of the service

About us

Whittington Health serves a richly diverse population and works hard to ensure that all our services are fair and equally accessible to everyone. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the way we look after our staff. We aim to employ a workforce which is as representative as possible of this population, so we are open to the value of differences in age, disability, gender, marital status, pregnancy and maternity, race, sexual orientation, and religion or belief. The Trustbelieves that as a public sector organisation we have an obligation to have recruitment, training, promotion and other formal employment policies and procedures that are sensitive to these differences. We think that by doing so, we are better able to treat our patients as well as being a better place to work.

Job responsibilities

1. To be responsible for maintaining a personal high standard of clinical practice.

2. To maintain and develop knowledge of evidence-based practice and own competencies through CPD activities (e.g. peer review, in-service training, journal club, external courses), maintaining a portfolio, which reflects personal development in line with GPhC.

3. To use clinical information to help inform clinical decision making, bringing together a range of complex information to formulate diagnoses or care plans.

4. To work within any professional or Trust clinical guidelines, maintain knowledge of current clinical practice and of national and local standards, and to ensure own and colleagues safe and competent practice.

5. To develop treatment goals/care plans, working in partnership with patients, their families or carers and other members of the multi-disciplinary team, and to communicate these effectively.

6. To have a working understanding of the Mental Capacity Act and be confident in assessing a persons capacity to make decisions relating to their medications. (Support will be provided for training if needed).

7. To use verbal and non-verbal communication skills to communicate complex or sensitive information in a way that patients and others can understand, overcoming barriers to communication e.g. cognitive problems, language barriers, and using motivational skills to ensure participation.

8. To maintain accurate clinical records in accordance with Trust and professional standards, and to ensure that staff in the team maintain clinical records to these standards.

9. To provide verbal and written reports as required, for people both internal and external to the organisation.

10. To be responsible for updating and developing patient medication assessment, treatment and monitoring tools when required.

11. To provide clinical advice and to make recommendations on prescribing issues to patients GPs and hospital clinicians in accordance with local policy and guidelines and the requirements of medicines legislation.

12. To provide relevant education and training to Whittington staff.

Person Specification

Knowledge & Experience

• Has experience of multidisciplinary (MDT) working
• Has up to date clinical knowledge of complex care and long-term conditions
• Previous experience of working in elderly care
• Experience of developing clinical policies/guidelines
• Is able to engage in the strategic development of the service
• Experience in delivery of frailty service to older people
• Has experience of carrying out comprehensive medication reviews for patients in their own homes.
• Experience of line management/ team leadership

Education / Qualifications

• MPharm degree or equivalent
• Relevant professional qualification and current registration as a pharmacist
• Completion of a certificate in Pharmacy Practice / Clinical Pharmacy, or equivalent
• Completion of, at least, a post graduate diploma qualification in General Pharmacy Practice / Clinical Pharmacy, or equivalent

Skills & Abilities

• Ability to work unsupervised and manage own workload
• Ability to work under pressure and manage competing priorities
• Competent in IT and has the ability to learn new operating systems and software packages
• Good interpersonal and communication skills, written and oral
• Confident, self-motivated and energetic
• Ability to interpret local or national guidance and translate them to front line clinical practice
• Experience of providing education and training to pharmacy and nursing staff, doctors and other AHPs

Personal Qualities

• Demonstrates an interest in the providing quality care to frail older people
• Evidence of and commitment to own personal development
• Demonstrate an understating of and commitment to equal opportunities and equal access
• Able to work flexibly to meet service needs

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.

Specialist Frailty Pharmacist - PROFACCT

£51,883 to £58,544 a yearper annum inclusive of HCAS