Band 8A Senior Pharmacist - Acute Medicine & Medicines Advice

The role includes overseeing the day-to-day management of the service provided to the medical wards as well as assisting the lead medical advice pharmacist in managing the daily operations in the MA service. You will also be responsible for the development of evidence-based guidelines and protocols, additionally, oversee the training and development of junior pharmacists including setting their objectives., + Act as a deputy for Principal Pharmacist in Medicine or lead medicines advice pharmacist when necessary
+ Regular active participation in speciality ward rounds to support safe and effective use of medicines with these areas
+ Delivery of a safe and effective medicines advice service
+ Maintaining clinical governance within the medicine and medicines advice services
+ Ensuring seamless pharmaceutical care from admission to discharge, including liaising with other pharmacists and healthcare professionals (primary and secondary) who may be taking over care of the patient
+ To act as a clinical role model, and support training and supervision of junior members of the pharmacy team
+ Development and implementation of clinical guidelines
+ Effective control of drug expenditure and management of processes regarding high-cost drugs
+ Developing the role of independent prescribing within medicine
+ To participate in audits and practice research
+ To work with the clinical risk team to minimise the risk of medicines, o To receive, analyze and interpret enquiries of varying degrees of complexity
o To independently answer complex and highly specialized queries from healthcare professionals and patients, including the analysis of highly complex and conflicting / contradictory data, in response to both routine and urgent / emergency enquiries to ensure the safe, clinically effective and cost-efficient use of medicines in order to optimize patient care
o To critically evaluate information in an impartial manner and attach appropriate weighting to different levels of evidence
o To provide expert evaluated information (verbal/written/electronic) giving facts and/or advice in response to enquiries
o To recognize when to direct others to the most appropriate resource for the question being asked.
o To support the Medicines Information/ Advice needs of all pharmacy staff including enquiry answering, guidance on appropriate information sources and ensuring they are kept up to date with all drug and resource developments.
o To manage difficult and ambiguous situations such as situations of conflict, enquiries from distressed patients and situations regarding legal and ethical issues and to provide support and guidance to colleagues in complicated decision-making processes
o To contribute to the writing and checking of medicine-related guidance/protocols, and contribute to guidance relating to drug shortages
o To be an expert in database searching techniques
o To perform literature searches for colleagues in the trust and for primary care if required
o Promotion of Medicines Advisory Service through multiple sources e.g. bulletins, social media, Trust Intranet and Trust website
o To deputise for the MA manager in their absence
o To provide training and supervision for all staff and students rotating through MA
o To organize education for medical, nursing, pharmacy and AHP staff both inside and outside the Trust
o To develop and maintain systems (for example ensure access to resources and are kept up to date ) within the MA service to improve the quality of the service and ensure it conforms to current UKMi standards
o To maintain and develop the Patients' Medicines Advice Helpline
o To participate in UKMi external audits and implement any findings
o To maintain and update standard operating procedures for use in Medicines Advice, including those required to assist on-call pharmacists
o To assist in managing the budget for MA, including reviewing on-line subscription costs as well as costs for other resources (books, training resources etc)
o To secure access to relevant information sources for the MA centre and to ensure that others can access these sources as well
o To delegate authority/tasks appropriately to junior staff to ensure optimum provision of the MA service
o To conduct user satisfaction surveys of the MA service to HCPs and the Patient Helpline, and contribute to audit reports.
o To contribute to annual KPI data collection and reporting for the MA service
CLINICAL RESPONSIBILITIES
+ To provide a high quality clinical pharmacy service as part of the MDT to acute medical patients, and support medical specialities to ensure maximum efficacy, safety and economic drug use and to demonstrate professional accountability to enhance patient care.
+ Regular attendance of consultant ward rounds and multidisciplinary team meetings.
+ Delivery of a high quality, specialist ward based pharmacy service including medicines reconciliation, drug supply, review of highly complex medication regimens, interaction monitoring, adverse drug reaction monitoring and discharge planning
+ To make clinical decisions where limited/conflicting information is available
+ To ensure compliance with local policies including medicines policy, formulary, and microbiology guidelines. To challenge prescribing practices where necessary.
+ Promotion of high quality and cost-effective prescribing.
+ To be the main pharmacy contact for a designated area in Acute Medicine and to support the pharmacy medicine team with medical specialties including rheumatology, respiratory, dermatology or immunology.
+ Development and review of Patient Group Directions and Shared Care guidelines.
+ Implementation of relevant local and national guidelines for Acute Medicine and as needed
+ Provision of support on concordance related issues to patients including dosette boxes.
+ To qualify as an independent prescriber and where appropriate to improve patient care and safety, to continue to develop the role of pharmacist independent prescriber within a designated clinical area

· RESPONSIBILITY FOR POLICY AND SERVICE DEVELOPMENT
+
o To assist in the production and implementation of business plans for the development of the pharmacy service provided to medicine
o To assist in the formulation, prioritisation and implementation of long-term strategic plans for clinical pharmacy services in line with local, network and national objectives.
+ Contribute to the development of and ensuring adherence to evidence based prescribing guidelines.
+ Ensuring compliance with CQC medicine related outcomes, NICE appraisals and other government related initiatives
+ To provide the Principal Pharmacist with details of output, performance and activity data for medicine
+ To assist in the implementation of the Trust's Clinical Governance agenda within Medicine
+ To identify the risks of medicines used in the directorate and implement strategies to minimise them, working closely with the specialities' Clinical Risk Management Committees. Assist in the implementation of government led strategies to improve medication safety.

• To assist in the management of changes in order to maximise patient care and to consider and act upon the implications of the change to other areas/personnel.

+ To identify aspects of the service which would benefit from change, and apply QI methodology where appropriate in order to implement change

· RESPONSIBILITY FOR FINANCIAL AND PHYSICAL RESOURCES
To assist the Principal Pharmacist Medicine in the management of the drug budget. The responsibilities will include:
· Provision of detailed evaluated reports on drug expenditure to divisional finance managers and directors
· Forecasting new drug developments, and identify changes in prescribing practice that may impact on the drug budget.
· Contributing to the annual pharmacy department drug cost pressure document
· Interpreting published data on new drugs for use and to prepare evaluations and present applications to the Drug and Therapeutics Committee
· To support any Trust wide cost efficiency measures
· Ensure commissioning and funding processes for high-cost drugs are followed, including intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) and adherence to national and local commissioning pathways.
· To provide clinical advice for use of high-cost drugs within the medicine pharmacy team and facilitate the seamless transition of patient care between primary and secondary sectors, by liaising with consultants and patients and primary care colleagues
· To act as a key liaison for homecare medicines within medical specialties
· RESPONSIBILITY FOR LEADING AND MANAGING
o To deputise for the Principal Pharmacist - Medicine and Medicines Advice in their absence
o To share expertise with healthcare professionals on a nationwide level through professional conferences, forum, and bodies.
o To manage and support the development of Band 7 Senior Pharmacists, band 6 rotational pharmacists and trainee pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. This will include the setting of objectives and the undertaking of annual/section appraisals
o To assist with the day-to-day management of the pharmacy service provided to the medical wards and medicines advisory service including allocation of workload, dealing with sickness, prioritizing discharges
o To participate in recruitment and selection
o To attend and be active participant in relevant clinical and managerial groups divisionally, corporately, and externally, to ensure the delivery of best care to patients. This may include presenting data / guidelines that may be controversial / likely to be challenged.
o To represent pharmacy and act as link person at relevant meetings and conferences and disseminate knowledge of developments to other staff.
o To share expertise with healthcare professionals on a nationwide level through professional conferences, forum, and bodies.
· EDUCATIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES
+ To act as a resource for Medicine issues across the trust and community where appropriate.
+ To provide clinical supervision and support junior members of the pharmacy team
+ To undertake ward visits with junior pharmacists, ensuring that clinical pharmacy standards are adhered to and addressing any educational needs
+ To contribute to and participate in the education and training of pharmacy, medical and nursing staff and other healthcare workers
+ To contribute to the departmental appraisal and development programme for junior pharmacists. This includes, + Applications from job seekers who require sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. Before submitting your application and to avoid disappointment please check that you are eligible under the UKVI points based system.
+ If you are offered a role with one of the NLPSS partner trusts, as part of pre-employment checks your identity and right to work documentation will be verified remotely (in most circumstances), using a certified identity verification service provider TrustID. You will be asked to capture an image of the relevant documents as well as a "selfie" using your smartphone/tablet (if available) for facial matching. TrustID will also perform a digital address check using Trunarrative and Equifax, which is a soft check and does not leave a footprint on your credit rating. For more information, visit www.trustid.co.uk
+ The Trust uses electronic new starter forms on Trac to collect personal details. Information collected is securely stored and used to set up the employee record on the ESR HR system.
+ The Trust will request a DBS (CRB) if post involves regulated activities. The Trust is compliant with the Disclosure and Barring Service Codes of practice and the Rehabilitation of offenders act.
+ By applying for this post you are agreeing to Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust transferring the information contained in this application to its preferred applicant management system. If you are offered a job, information will also be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system.
+ Please be aware of scams - unless specified above, we will only communicate with you via @recruit.trac.jobs or nhs.net e-mails and we will never ask you for any payments.

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an enthusiastic and self-motivated clinical pharmacist to join the Acute Medicine and Medicines Advice (MA) team and develop the role of clinical pharmacy. Medicine includes AMU (Acute medical unit) and AAU (Acute assessment unit), Thoracic Medicine and TREAT (triage readmissions elderly admissions team) services and support to Accident and Emergency unit. The pharmacist will play a key role in the safe and effective management of drugs across medicine/ thoracic and will be a key member of the multi-disciplinary team (MDT)., Potential candidates will have experience working as a band 7 pharmacist, with some experience of working in medicine/MA. They will be comfortable working with consultant level staff and have some knowledge of managing drug budgets, developing and implementing policies/guidelines and supervision and training of staff.

The Royal Free London NHS Trust is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the UK with many specialties including kidney and liver transplantation, haemophilia, amyloidosis and scleroderma with the newly opened Pears Building being at the forefront of medical research.
The trust has around 10,000 staff serving 1.6 million patients. It comprises Barnet Hospital, Chase Farm Hospital, the Royal Free Hospital and more than 30 services in the community. This large-scale organisation provides an unprecedented opportunity for us to continue our pioneering work, in finding ways to deliver even better care to patients.
The Pharmacy department is a friendly, and progressive unit dedicated to providing the highest standards of pharmaceutical care and service. Providing a variety of pharmacy services across all three sites, the pharmacy department have played a pivotal role in the implementation of electronic prescribing system and have strategic plans for the development of more consultant and independent prescribing pharmacists. The pharmacy medicine team consists of a team of pharmacists and technicians working across all the medical wards to provide a safe, cost-effective and timely service to patients. The team are well-respected at ward level, providing advice to both nursing and medical staff on the use of medicines. Medicines advice consist of a friendly team of the lead MA pharmacist and rotational pharmacists from Royal Free and Barnet sites.

Our trust has around 10,000 staff serving 1.6 million patients. It comprises Barnet Hospital, Chase Farm Hospital, the Royal Free Hospital and more than 30 services in the community. This larger scale organisation provides an unprecedented opportunity for us to continue our pioneering work, particularly in finding ways to deliver even better care to our patients.
Our mission is to deliver world class care and expertise in our clinical services, underpinned by world class teaching and research and we will continue to measure our progress against our five governing objectives: excellent outcomes, excellent patient and staff experience, excellent value for taxpayers' money, being safe and meeting our external duties, and building a strong organisation.
Everyone is welcome at Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust. We're proud of our diversity and we continue to undertake new initiatives to advance equality for LGBT+, BME, gender equality, staff carers and people with disabilities and lived experiences to promote good relations and understanding between our staff.