Job summary Are you an experienced clinical pharmacist with proven leadership qualities who is passionate about advancing clinical pharmacy services in primary care? The Chesterfield and Dronfield Primary Care Network (PCN) is looking for a Senior Clinical Pharmacist to join their growing pharmacy team, to support and enhance the clinical pharmacy service at practice level. This is an exciting opportunity, in a new and innovative post, to collaborate with an experienced lead pharmacist, in developing the knowledge and skills of our team and the clinical and operational services it delivers, to meet the diverse needs of our patients. The ideal candidate will be an experienced clinical pharmacist and independent prescriber with leadership and management qualities, who is committed to improving patient care and passionate about the positive impact pharmacy professionals in general practice can make. The candidate must be able to lead a pharmacy team across multiple practices working in an effective and integrated way as part of a diverse range of practice teams. An understanding and appreciation of general practice is essential, to identify the need of practices, and develop a team and the services it delivers to meet these needs. You will be expected to enroll on the CPPE Primary Care Pharmacy Education Pathway (PCPEP) if you have not completed already or can be exempted. Main duties of the job This role is to work across our neighbourhood practices in Dronfield and East of Chesterfield (Dronfield Medical Practice, Stubley Medical Centre, Oakhill Medical Practice, Brimington Surgery and Calow & Brimington Practice). The post holder will have line-management oversight over a team of pharmacy professionals in Dronfield and East of Chesterfield neighbourhoods, ensuring these teams work within their clinical competencies as part of a multi-disciplinary team to provide expertise in clinical pharmacy, patient-facing medication reviews, manage long term conditions, management of medicines on transfer of care and systems for safer prescribing, manage repeat prescription authorisation and re-authorisation, acute prescription requests, while addressing both the public health and social care needs of patients in the GP practice(s) that make up the PCN. In this role the senior clinical pharmacist will have the support of the lead clinical pharmacist. This role is pivotal to improving the quality of care and operational efficiencies so requires motivation and passion to deliver an excellent service within general practice, and to support and develop the team to do the same. The post holder will be responsible for the day-to-day management and development of the pharmacists and technicians within the neighbourhood, and the services they deliver, liaising with the member practices and the lead clinical pharmacist. About us The Chesterfield and Dronfield PCN, formed by ten member practices is one of the largest Primary Care Networks in the UK and covers circa 100,000 patients in North East Derbyshire. The PCN has an established and growing team of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, who are embedded in practices across the PCN, and are committed to delivering high quality care for our patients. Our mission: Committed to high quality collaborative person-centred care. Delivered with integrity and transparency, improving health and wellbeing for all. Benefits of working with us: NHS Pension with employer contributions Structured pay progression On appointment 27 days plus 8 Bank Holiday annual leave entitlement which rises annually with length of service up to 33 days (pro rata for part time staff) Entitlement of up to 5 days professional/study leave per annum, pro rata. Access to Well-Being Support Blue light Card Discount Practice-based/home-based flexible working arrangements available. Please note we are not an Agenda for Change Organisation Practice-based/home-based flexible working arrangements are available, but the innovative nature of the role is not consistent with predominately home-working. Interviews for this post will be held at Dunston Innovation Centre, face to face on the afternoon of Thursday 8 May 2025. Date posted 04 March 2025 Pay scheme Other Salary £54,009.40 to £58,209.44 a year Depending on experience Contract Permanent Working pattern Full-time, Flexible working Reference number A3065-25-0005 Job locations Arc Primary Care Dunston Road Chesterfield Derbyshire S41 8NG Job description Job responsibilities Key duties and responsibilities 1. Patient facing medicines support Hold clinics for patients requiring medication reviews, stratifying the need for technical reviews, medicines adherence reviews (including polypharmacy reviews), focal long-term condition/clinical reviews (see section 3) or holistic long-term condition/clinical reviews (structured medication reviews). Provide support for patients with questions, queries, and concerns about their medicines. 2. Care home structured medication reviews Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients, care home staff and aging well team, produce recommendations for the multidisciplinary team on prescribing and monitoring. Work with care home staff to improve safety of medicines ordering and administration. 3. Long-term condition Clinics See (where appropriate) patients with single or multiple medical problems where medicine optimisation is required (e.g., Respiratory, Cardiovascular-Reno-Metabolic). Review the on-going need for each medicine, a review of monitoring needs and an opportunity to support patients with their medicines taking ensuring they get the best use of their medicines (i.e. medicines optimisation). Make appropriate recommendations to Senior Pharmacists or GPs for medicine improvement. 4. Patient facing Domiciliary Structured Medication Reviews Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for the senior clinical pharmacists, nurses and GPs on prescribing and monitoring. Attend and refer patients to multidisciplinary case conferences. 5. Risk stratification Identification of cohorts of patients at high risk of harm from medicines through pre-prepared practice computer searches. This might include risks that are patient related, medicine related, or both. 6. Unplanned hospital admissions Review the use of medicines most commonly associated with unplanned hospital admissions and readmissions through audit and individual patient reviews. Put in place changes to reduce the prescribing of these medicines to high-risk patient groups. 7. Management of medicines at discharge from hospital To reconcile medicines following discharge from hospitals, intermediate care and into care Homes, including identifying and rectifying unexplained changes and working with patients and community pharmacists to ensure patients receive the medicines they need post discharge. Set up and manage systems to ensure continuity of medicines supply to high-risk groups of patients (e.g., those with medicine compliance aids or those in Care Homes). 8. Medicine information to practice staff and patients Answers relevant medicine-related enquiries from GPs, other network staff, other healthcare teams (e.g., community pharmacy) and patients with queries about medicines. Suggesting and recommending solutions. Providing follow up for patients to monitor the effect of any changes. 9. Signposting Ensure that patients are referred to the appropriate healthcare professional for the appropriate level of care within an appropriate time period e.g., pathology results, common/minor ailments, acute conditions, long term condition reviews etc. 10. Repeat prescribing Manage the repeat prescribing reauthorisation process by reviewing patient requests for repeat prescriptions and reviewing medicines reaching review dates and flagging up those needing a review. Ensure patients have appropriate monitoring tests in place when required. 11. Service development Contribute pharmaceutical advice for the development and implementation of new services that have medicinal components (e.g., advice on treatment pathways and patient information leaflets). Bring experience and innovation to develop concepts for service development to support sustainable productivity and empower pharmacy professionals to strive towards meeting the needs of the practice and it's patients. 12. Information management Analyse, interpret and present medicines data to highlight issues and risks to support decision making. 13. Medicines quality improvement Undertake clinical audits of prescribing in areas directed by the GPs and the PCN team, feedback the results and implement changes in conjunction with the relevant practice team. 14. Medicines safety Implement changes to medicines that result from MHRA alerts, product withdrawal and other local and national guidance. 15. Implementation of local and national guidelines and formulary recommendations Monitor practice prescribing against the local health economys RAG list and make recommendations to GPs for medicines that should be prescribed by hospital doctors (red drugs) or subject to shared care (amber drugs). Assist practices in seeing and maintaining a practice formulary that is hosted on each practices computer system. Auditing practices compliance against NICE technology assessment guidance. Provide newsletters or bulletins on important prescribing messages. 16. Education and Training Provide education and training to primary healthcare team on therapeutics and medicines optimisation. 17. Care Quality Commission Work with the general practice teams to ensure the practices are compliant with CQC standards where medicines are involved. 18. Public health Support public health campaigns and provide specialist knowledge on all public health programs available to the general public. 19. Collaborative working arrangements Participate in the PCN MDT. Liaise with ICB colleagues including ICB pharmacists on prescribing related matters to ensure consistency of patient care and benefit. Foster and maintain strong links with all services across the PCN and neighbouring networks, exploring the potential for collaborative working and take opportunities to initiate and sustain such relationships. Liaise with other stakeholders as needed for the collective benefit of patients. 20. Line-Management Day to day management of the PCN pharmacists and technicians in the neighbourhood(s), including communication and planning in exceptional circumstances, reviewing requests for leave, appraisal and performance management processes. 21. Clinical leadership Motivate, support and develop a team of clinical pharmacists and technicians to deliver patient-centred care through services including medication reviews and long-term condition reviews by supervising, collaborating and mentoring. Bring innovative operational and clinical service development, to grow the capabilities of the clinical pharmacy team, and develop robust professional interpersonal relationships with the pharmacy team and practice teams to enable this. Job description Job responsibilities Key duties and responsibilities 1. Patient facing medicines support Hold clinics for patients requiring medication reviews, stratifying the need for technical reviews, medicines adherence reviews (including polypharmacy reviews), focal long-term condition/clinical reviews (see section 3) or holistic long-term condition/clinical reviews (structured medication reviews). Provide support for patients with questions, queries, and concerns about their medicines. 2. Care home structured medication reviews Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients, care home staff and aging well team, produce recommendations for the multidisciplinary team on prescribing and monitoring. Work with care home staff to improve safety of medicines ordering and administration. 3. Long-term condition Clinics See (where appropriate) patients with single or multiple medical problems where medicine optimisation is required (e.g., Respiratory, Cardiovascular-Reno-Metabolic). Review the on-going need for each medicine, a review of monitoring needs and an opportunity to support patients with their medicines taking ensuring they get the best use of their medicines (i.e. medicines optimisation). Make appropriate recommendations to Senior Pharmacists or GPs for medicine improvement. 4. Patient facing Domiciliary Structured Medication Reviews Undertake clinical medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for the senior clinical pharmacists, nurses and GPs on prescribing and monitoring. Attend and refer patients to multidisciplinary case conferences. 5. Risk stratification Identification of cohorts of patients at high risk of harm from medicines through pre-prepared practice computer searches. This might include risks that are patient related, medicine related, or both. 6. Unplanned hospital admissions Review the use of medicines most commonly associated with unplanned hospital admissions and readmissions through audit and individual patient reviews. Put in place changes to reduce the prescribing of these medicines to high-risk patient groups. 7. Management of medicines at discharge from hospital To reconcile medicines following discharge from hospitals, intermediate care and into care Homes, including identifying and rectifying unexplained changes and working with patients and community pharmacists to ensure patients receive the medicines they need post discharge. Set up and manage systems to ensure continuity of medicines supply to high-risk groups of patients (e.g., those with medicine compliance aids or those in Care Homes). 8. Medicine information to practice staff and patients Answers relevant medicine-related enquiries from GPs, other network staff, other healthcare teams (e.g., community pharmacy) and patients with queries about medicines. Suggesting and recommending solutions. Providing follow up for patients to monitor the effect of any changes. 9. Signposting Ensure that patients are referred to the appropriate healthcare professional for the appropriate level of care within an appropriate time period e.g., pathology results, common/minor ailments, acute conditions, long term condition reviews etc. 10. Repeat prescribing Manage the repeat prescribing reauthorisation process by reviewing patient requests for repeat prescriptions and reviewing medicines reaching review dates and flagging up those needing a review. Ensure patients have appropriate monitoring tests in place when required. 11. Service development Contribute pharmaceutical advice for the development and implementation of new services that have medicinal components (e.g., advice on treatment pathways and patient information leaflets). Bring experience and innovation to develop concepts for service development to support sustainable productivity and empower pharmacy professionals to strive towards meeting the needs of the practice and it's patients. 12. Information management Analyse, interpret and present medicines data to highlight issues and risks to support decision making. 13. Medicines quality improvement Undertake clinical audits of prescribing in areas directed by the GPs and the PCN team, feedback the results and implement changes in conjunction with the relevant practice team. 14. Medicines safety Implement changes to medicines that result from MHRA alerts, product withdrawal and other local and national guidance. 15. Implementation of local and national guidelines and formulary recommendations Monitor practice prescribing against the local health economys RAG list and make recommendations to GPs for medicines that should be prescribed by hospital doctors (red drugs) or subject to shared care (amber drugs). Assist practices in seeing and maintaining a practice formulary that is hosted on each practices computer system. Auditing practices compliance against NICE technology assessment guidance. Provide newsletters or bulletins on important prescribing messages. 16. Education and Training Provide education and training to primary healthcare team on therapeutics and medicines optimisation. 17. Care Quality Commission Work with the general practice teams to ensure the practices are compliant with CQC standards where medicines are involved. 18. Public health Support public health campaigns and provide specialist knowledge on all public health programs available to the general public. 19. Collaborative working arrangements Participate in the PCN MDT. Liaise with ICB colleagues including ICB pharmacists on prescribing related matters to ensure consistency of patient care and benefit. Foster and maintain strong links with all services across the PCN and neighbouring networks, exploring the potential for collaborative working and take opportunities to initiate and sustain such relationships. Liaise with other stakeholders as needed for the collective benefit of patients. 20. Line-Management Day to day management of the PCN pharmacists and technicians in the neighbourhood(s), including communication and planning in exceptional circumstances, reviewing requests for leave, appraisal and performance management processes. 21. Clinical leadership Motivate, support and develop a team of clinical pharmacists and technicians to deliver patient-centred care through services including medication reviews and long-term condition reviews by supervising, collaborating and mentoring. Bring innovative operational and clinical service development, to grow the capabilities of the clinical pharmacy team, and develop robust professional interpersonal relationships with the pharmacy team and practice teams to enable this. Person Specification Qualifications Essential Mandatory registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council Independent Prescribing or currently working towards qualification Minimum of 5 years post qualification experience Desirable Clinical Diploma Membership Primary Care Pharmacists Association Membership Royal Pharmaceutical Society Knowledge and Skills Essential Demonstrates understanding of, and conforms to, relevant standards of practice Follows professional & organisational policies/procedures relating to performance management In-depth therapeutic & clinical knowledge and an understanding of evidence based healthcare An appreciation of GPs and General Practice environment Awareness of common acute and long-term conditions that are likely to be seen in general practice Excellent Interpersonal, influencing & negotiating skills, to make shared decisions in situations where barriers to this may be present Excellent verbal & written communication skills Ability to lead, motivate and manage a team to develop skills for sustainable service provision that meet the identified needs of practices and their patients Experience of collaborative working and building relationships across a variety of organisations Demonstrate the ability to communicate complex and sensitive information in an understandable form to various audiences (e.g. patients) Able to plan, manage, monitor, advise & review general medicines optimisation issues in core areas for long term conditions (LTCs) Good IT communication skills Knowledge of IT systems, including ability to use word processing skills, emails & internet to produce timely and accurate plans and reports Able to obtain and analyse complex technical information Recognises priorities when problem solving and identifies deviations from the normal pattern and able to refer to Leads or GPs when appropriate Able to work under pressure and meet deadlines Understand the systems of research governance Work effectively independently and as a team member Demonstrates accountability for delivering professional expertise and direct service provision Meets DBS reference standards and has a clear criminal record, in line with the law on spent convictions Other Essential Adaptable and self motivated Able to recognise personal limitations and refer to more suitable colleagues when appropriate Ability to identify risk and assess/manage risk when working with individuals Appropriate Immunisation Status Access to own transport and ability to travel across the locality on a regular basis, including to visit people in their own homes Experience Essential Experience of working in Primary Care Person Specification Qualifications Essential Mandatory registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council Independent Prescribing or currently working towards qualification Minimum of 5 years post qualification experience Desirable Clinical Diploma Membership Primary Care Pharmacists Association Membership Royal Pharmaceutical Society Knowledge and Skills Essential Demonstrates understanding of, and conforms to, relevant standards of practice Follows professional & organisational policies/procedures relating to performance management In-depth therapeutic & clinical knowledge and an understanding of evidence based healthcare An appreciation of GPs and General Practice environment Awareness of common acute and long-term conditions that are likely to be seen in general practice Excellent Interpersonal, influencing & negotiating skills, to make shared decisions in situations where barriers to this may be present Excellent verbal & written communication skills Ability to lead, motivate and manage a team to develop skills for sustainable service provision that meet the identified needs of practices and their patients Experience of collaborative working and building relationships across a variety of organisations Demonstrate the ability to communicate complex and sensitive information in an understandable form to various audiences (e.g. patients) Able to plan, manage, monitor, advise & review general medicines optimisation issues in core areas for long term conditions (LTCs) Good IT communication skills Knowledge of IT systems, including ability to use word processing skills, emails & internet to produce timely and accurate plans and reports Able to obtain and analyse complex technical information Recognises priorities when problem solving and identifies deviations from the normal pattern and able to refer to Leads or GPs when appropriate Able to work under pressure and meet deadlines Understand the systems of research governance Work effectively independently and as a team member Demonstrates accountability for delivering professional expertise and direct service provision Meets DBS reference standards and has a clear criminal record, in line with the law on spent convictions Other Essential Adaptable and self motivated Able to recognise personal limitations and refer to more suitable colleagues when appropriate Ability to identify risk and assess/manage risk when working with individuals Appropriate Immunisation Status Access to own transport and ability to travel across the locality on a regular basis, including to visit people in their own homes Experience Essential Experience of working in Primary Care 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. UK Registration Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window). Additional information 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. UK Registration Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window). Employer details Employer name Arc Primary Care Address Arc Primary Care Dunston Road Chesterfield Derbyshire S41 8NG Employer's website https://www.chesterfieldanddronfieldpcn.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)