Specialist Clinical Pharmacist

Are you looking for a challenge in a new clinical area based in County Durham?

Our pharmacists make a real difference to the mental health of the people who most need support across our communities. The roles are patient facing with time to develop advanced clinical skills whilst caring for those in need as part of a multi-disciplinary team.

This post is based at West Park Hospital in Darlington, delivering services to wards across the Durham and Darlington locality. The successful candidate will be delivering the in-patient service with the support of pharmacy technicians. They will be supported by a very experienced team of senior pharmacists.

Our pharmacists can work flexibly within the needs of the service. Use of flexi-time is standard for all staff, we can offer flexible working arrangements to support your well-being and a healthy work-life balance. Weekend working is limited to half days on only 1 or 2 weekends per year. There are no late nights, and the on-call rota is currently covered with pharmacists opting in.

There are many benefits to working for TEWV including free access to well-being support, free car parking, lease car schemes and excellent annual leave entitlements.

We are looking for experienced pharmacists wishing to specialise in mental health having already developed through their newly qualified pharmacist pathway. You should have enthusiasm, confidence and drive to make a real difference to the lives of patients with mental illness. Previous mental health experience is desirable, but training will be provided; however, you should be able to demonstrate a sound understanding of other areas of pharmacy and of mental health conditions and the medication used for them.

You should have experience of patient counselling, prescription screening/checking and have underpinning clinical pharmacy skills and knowledge. Excellent communication skills are essential.

Applicants should have experience of providing clinical pharmacy and medicines optimisation services in a hospital setting. You should have experience of patient counselling, prescription screening/checking and have underpinning clinical pharmacy skills and knowledge, ideally demonstrated through current study of, or attainment of a clinical diploma.

Our teams are friendly, supportive, and committed to providing the best possible services. We developed a 5-year Medicines Optimisation and Pharmacy Framework, which was co-created with the team enabling a shared set of themes and priorities. The trust has also co-created a direction of travel known as Our Journey to Change.

The Pharmacy team in TEWV has over 100 people including drivers, pharmacy assistants, admin, nurses, pharmacy technicians and pharmacists. Individual team members are spread across multiple sites, with a dispensary in each of our 3 localities. The locality teams work independently, but come together to agree standards and best practice, learning from each other to improve.

We are committed to developing our staff and can provide the opportunity to undertake post graduate qualifications including independent non-medical prescribing and the Aston University Post Graduate Certificate in Psychiatric Therapeutics. The Trust is committed to Quality Improvement Systems and there will be opportunities to development your skills using these tools.