Job description Role: Clinical Pharmacist (Primary Care) Location: Westwood Road Surgery, Reading Salary: £24.67- £27.82 per hour depending on experience Hours: Full time, 37.5 hours per week with the expectation of working extended access hours on a rota basis, shared with the wider clinical team. Extended access hours are 18:30-20:00 on a Monday, Thursday and every 1 in 5 Fridays. Job summary We are a rapidly growing GP-led organisation with a mission to ensure that all patients have access to comprehensive, coordinated, and continuous care within a sustainable primary care system. We appreciate that our whole primary care system is struggling, which is hurting patient care and staff happiness. We believe that we can turn this around by reimagining how primary care is delivered from the ground up by placing a focus on data insights, technology, and clinical innovation. Ultimately, we want to improve patient access, patient experience, and health outcomes to significantly increase the quality of care for our patients. Main duties of the job Work as part of a multi-disciplinary team in a patient-facing role to clinically assess and treat patients using their expert knowledge of medicines for specific disease areas Be a prescriber, or completing training to become a prescriber, and work with and alongside the general practice team Be responsible for the care management of patients with chronic diseases and undertake clinical medication reviews to proactively manage people with complex polypharmacy Provide specialist expertise in the use of medicines whilst helping to address both the public health and social care needs of patients at the organisation and to help in tackling inequalities Through structured medication reviews, support patients to take their medications to get the best from them, reduce waste and promote self-care Have a leadership role in supporting further integration of general practice with the wider healthcare teams (including community and hospital pharmacy) to help improve patient outcomes, ensure better access to healthcare and help manage general practice workload Develop relationships and work closely with other pharmacy professionals across the wider health and social care system Take a central role in the clinical aspects of shared care protocols, clinical research with medicines, liaison with specialist pharmacists (including mental health and reduction of inappropriate antipsychotic use in people with learning difficulties), liaison with community pharmacists, and anticoagulation Be part of a professional clinical network and have access to appropriate clinical supervision. Appropriate clinical supervision means: Each clinical pharmacist must receive a minimum of one supervision session per month by a senior clinical pharmacist The senior clinical pharmacist must receive a minimum of one supervision session every three months by a GP clinical supervisor - Each clinical pharmacist will have access to an assigned GP clinical supervisor for support and development A ratio of one senior clinical pharmacist to no more than five junior clinical pharmacists, with appropriate peer support and supervision in place To act as the point of contact for all medicine related matters, establishing positive working relationships To consult patients within defined levels of competence and independently prescribe acute and repeat medication To receive referrals and directed patients from triage services and other clinicians To provide medication review services for patients in the practice To manage a therapeutic drug monitoring system and the recall of patients taking high risk drugs, i.e., anticoagulants, anticonvulsants and DMARDs, etc. To deliver long term condition clinics and home visits, particularly for patients with complicated medication regimes, and prescribe accordingly To provide pharmaceutical consultations to patients with long term conditions as an integral part of the multidisciplinary team To review medications for newly registered patients To improve patient and carer understanding of confidence in and compliance with their medication To encourage cost-effective prescribing throughout the organisation To implement and embed a robust repeat prescribing system To provide advice and answer medication related queries from patients and staff Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (ED&I) A good attitude and positive action towards Equality Diversity & Inclusion (ED&I) creates an environment where all individuals are able to achieve their full potential. Creating such an environment is important for three reasons – it improves operational effectiveness, it is morally the right thing to do and it is required by law. Patients and their families have the right to be treated fairly and be routinely involved in decisions about their treatment and care. They can expect to be treated with dignity and respect and will not be discriminated against on any grounds including age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation. Patients have a responsibility to treat other patients and our staff with dignity and respect. Staff have the right to be treated fairly in recruitment and career progression. Staff can expect to work in an environment where diversity is valued, and equality of opportunity is promoted. Staff will not be discriminated against on any grounds including age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation. Staff have a responsibility to ensure that they treat our patients and their colleagues with dignity and respect. Safety, Health, Environment and Fire (SHEF) This organisation is committed to supporting and promoting opportunities for staff to maintain their health, wellbeing and safety. The post holder is to manage and assess risk within their areas of responsibility, ensuring adequate measures are in place to protect staff and patients, and monitor work areas and practices to ensure they are safe and free from hazards, and conform to health, safety and security legislation, policies, procedures and guidelines. All personnel are to comply with the: Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 Environmental Protection Act 1990 Environment Act 1995 Fire Precautions (workplace) Regulations 1999 Other statutory legislation which may be brought to the post holder’s attention. Confidentiality The organisation is committed to maintaining an outstanding confidential service. Patients entrust and permit us to collect and retain sensitive information relating to their health and other matters pertaining to their care. They do so in confidence and have a right to expect that all staff will respect their privacy and maintain confidentiality at all times. It is essential that, if the legal requirements are to be met and the trust of our patients is to be retained, all staff protect patient information and provide a confidential service. Quality and Continuous Improvement (CI) To preserve and improve the quality of the organisation’s outputs, all personnel are required to think not only of what they do, but how they achieve it. By continually re-examining our processes, we will be able to develop and improve the overall effectiveness of the way we work. The responsibility for this rests with everyone working within the organisation, to look for opportunities to improve quality and share good practice, and to discuss, highlight and work with the team to create opportunities to improve patient care. At this organisation, we continually strive to improve work processes which deliver healthcare with improved results across all areas of our service provision. We promote a culture of continuous improvement where everyone counts, and staff are permitted to make suggestions and contributions to improve our service delivery and enhance patient care. Staff should interpret national strategies and policies into local implementation strategies that are aligned to the values and culture of general practice. All staff are to contribute to investigations and root cause analyses whilst participating in serious incident investigations and multidisciplinary case reviews. Learning and development The effective use of training and development is fundamental in ensuring that all staff are equipped with the appropriate skills, knowledge, attitude and competences to perform their role. All staff will be required to partake in and complete mandatory training as directed. It is an expectation for the post holder to assess their own learning needs and undertake learning as appropriate. The post holder will undertake mentorship for team members, and disseminate learning and information gained to other team members, in order to share good practice and inform others about current and future developments (e.g., courses and conferences). The post holder will provide an educational role to patients, carers, families and colleagues in an environment that facilitates learning. Collaborative working All staff are to recognise the significance of collaborative working, understand their own role and scope, and identify how this may develop over time. Staff are to prioritise their own workload and ensure effective time-management strategies are embedded within the culture of the team. Teamwork is essential in multidisciplinary environments and the post holder is to work as an effective and responsible team member, supporting others and exploring the mechanisms to develop new ways of working, while working effectively with others to clearly define values, direction and policies impacting upon care delivery. Effective communication is essential, and all staff must ensure they communicate in a way which enables the sharing of information in an appropriate manner. All staff should delegate clearly and appropriately, adopting the principles of safe practice and assessment of competence. Plans and outcomes by which to measure success should be agreed. Managing information All staff should use technology and appropriate software as an aid to management in the planning, implementation and monitoring of care and presenting and communicating information. Data should be reviewed and processed using accurate SNOMED/read codes in order to ensure easy and accurate information retrieval for monitoring and audit processes. Service delivery Staff will be given detailed information during the induction process regarding policy and procedure. The post holder must adhere to the information contained within organisation policies and regional directives, ensuring protocols are adhered to at all times. Security The security of the organisation is the responsibility of all personnel. The post holder must ensure they remain vigilant at all times and report any suspicious activity immediately to their line manager. Under no circumstances are staff to share the codes for the door locks with anyone, and they are to ensure that restricted areas remain effectively secured. Likewise, password controls are to be maintained and passwords are not to be shared. Who are we looking for? (Qualifications, Attributes and Experience) Essential: Registered Pharmacist Pharmacy Degree Professional registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) Independent Prescriber Experience in chronic disease management and prescribing Provide evidence of continuous professional development Post-registration experience in primary / community / acute care Desirable: UK Driving License Previous direct GP practice experience Experience in minor acute condition management and prescribing Benefits: 27 days annual leave (pro-rata) plus 8 bank holidays (pro-rata) NHS Pension Scheme Life Assurance Income Protection Enhanced sick leave Enhanced family leave Medicash health cash plan Disclosure and Barring Service Check This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such will be necessary for a submission for the Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.