Lead Pharmacist - Medicines Information, Commissioning and Formulary

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an enthusiastic Pharmacist to join our friendly and supportive Medicines Use, Safety, Governance and Quality team within the Pharmacy Department at Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

We are a friendly, dynamic and compassionate team who collectively aspire to deliver a safe and effective service for our staff and patients, in line with our Trust objectives.

In this leadership post, you will be responsible for the management of our Drugs and Therapeutics Committee which includes the review of new medicines and formulary adherence for both sites of Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Trusts and at Integrated Care System (ICS) Level.

You will be the operational lead for the Trust Medicines Information Service and will be responsible for providing a high quality clinical enquiry answering service to healthcare professionals within the Trust and to patients via our established medicines helpline and training and promoting service use within the organisation in conjunction with our local partners.

You will, with support from the Principal Pharmacist - Medicines Information, Formulary and Commissioning, lead on the high cost drug engagement programme with our clinical service lines ensuring the organisation's medicines use is in line with local, regional and national governance and commissioning frameworks including the promotion of cost effective use of medicines and contribution to the Trust medicines cost improvement programme.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will lead, manage and develop the Medicines Information Service provided to Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust to provide a high quality, customer responsive service in enquiry answering, literature evaluation and the provision of active information on all aspects of medicines and their use.

The post holder will operationally manage the Drugs and Therapeutics Committee and represent BHFT at ICS area prescribing committee and related subgroups as advised by the Principal Pharmacist, Commissioning Formulary and Medicines Information. The post will support the Pharmacy Purchasing Medicines for Safety Group programme.

The post holder will be involved in the operational management of high cost drug requests and medicines related cost improvement programmes, providing specialist advice on the commissioning of medicines, evaluation and implementation of new medicines, working closely with the commissioners, finance, the clinical pharmacy team and the clinical service lines to optimise cost effective use of medicines within the Trust.

To provide clinical support to CSLs in the management of high cost drug prescribing as appropriate, contributing to cost effective medicines use and service quality improvement.

Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust provides hospital services to a growing population of around 700,000 people living across Bedfordshire and the surrounding areas across two busy hospital sites in Bedford and Luton. Both hospital sites offer key services such as A&E, Obstetrics-led Maternity and Paediatrics. You will be joining a friendly, high performing Trust committed to ensuring the health and wellbeing of staff. As one of the largest NHS Trusts in our region you will have access to a programme of high quality training and development to help you grow your career. The Trust continues to be committed to delivering the best patient care using the best clinical knowledge and technology available.