Band 8a Senior Pharmacist - Private Patients Unit

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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.

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Job overview

The post holder will support the Principal Pharmacist to deliver a consistently high-quality clinical pharmacy and medicines management service to patients within the Private Patients Unit (PPU), which includes three ward areas, dialysis unit, outpatients, and a chemotherapy suite.

Previous experience of working in a Private Patient service is desirable but not essential as training will be provided. Clinical experience in renal medicine, hepatology, health services for the elderly, haematology and oncology, renal and hepato-biliary and vascular surgery is essential. You will have experience of leading a team in a hospital (NHS or Private) setting. You will be working closely with service leads and colleagues to further develop services and identifying ways to participate in cost-efficiency or income-generating projects. The postholder will also support the delivery of the pricing and costing processes for private patients within the Trust.

Main duties of the job

The Senior Pharmacist for PPU will support the provision and development of the clinical pharmacy service on the Private Patients Unit in both inpatient and outpatient settings.

The successful candidate will provide regular input for the management of patients on the unit, participating in the decision-making process and providing expert specialist advice on the effective use of medicines amongst this patient group. The post holder will be required to manage medications used across the service with provision of expert prescribing advice in the specialist area.

The postholder will work closely with the Principal Pharmacist to develop safe and effective use of medications on the Private Patient Unit, and will deliver the pricing and costing processes for medications used in private patients within the Trust.

Other key duties to the role are listed in the job description.

Working for our organisation

The Pharmacy department is a friendly, progressive and expanding 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 recently 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 team play a key part on providing cost-effective and timely service to patients either throughout their stay as inpatients or through pharmacist-led clinics. The team are well-respected both at ward and clinic level, providing advice to both nursing and medical staff on the use of medicines for this complex set of patients.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please see attachments for a more detailed job description and personal specification.
• CLINICAL RESPONSIBILITIES

To provide a high-quality clinical pharmacy service as part of the multidisciplinary team to private patients on the unit, to ensure maximum efficacy, safety, and cost-effective drug use and to demonstrate professional accountability to enhance patient care. The responsibilities will include:

• Regular attendance of consultant ward rounds and multidisciplinary team meetings.
• Demonstration of clinical knowledge in a number of specialties including hepatology, health services for the elderly, haematology and oncology, renal and hepato-biliary and vascular surgery
• Delivery of a high quality, specialist ward-based pharmacy service. This involves:
  • taking medication histories from patients admitted to the wards, clarifying inconsistencies with the patient's GP or Community Pharmacist,
  • ensuring appropriate use of patients' own drugs brought from home,
  • timely supply of medicines
  • review of highly complex medication regimens, clarification of medication changes made during inpatient stay by liaising with the medical team,
  • drug interaction and adverse drug reaction monitoring
  • medicines optimisation
• 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 one of the main pharmacy contacts for the Private Patient Unit.
• Development and review of Patient Group Directions
• Development and review of Shared Care guidelines
• Implementation of relevant local and national guidelines within the specialist area
• Assist in the implementation and evaluation of Drug Usage Reviews and clinical audits and implement changes in prescribing practice accordingly.
• To liaise and work with other specialist pharmacists to share the best practice, to strengthen patient focused pharmaceutical care.
• Work with the Principal Pharmacist to ensure set key performance indicators are met
• Work with the private care finance team to ensure appropriate authorisations for treatment are in place for individual patients
• Work with the Principal Pharmacist to help facilitate co-payment and top-up patients.
• Participate in any pharmacy related private care initiatives as appropriate.

• RESPONSIBILITY FOR PATIENTS

• To assist in the planning and organising of a clinical pharmacy service to the Private Patient Unit to patients in our service in both the inpatient and outpatient settings.
• 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.
• To provide clinical screening and dispensing support to the PPU pharmacy team to ensure the accurate and timely dispensing of prescriptions. To assist with the timely screening and checking of discharge prescriptions.
• To provide medicines management reviews for complex patients.
• To deal effectively with situations where medication errors have occurred, including liaising directly with patients and staff concerned.
• Assist in responding to complaints from patients and the public in relation to medicines management issues as required.
• To deliver a high quality and comprehensive medicines counselling service to patients and/or their relatives on all aspects of their pharmaceutical care including specialist and unlicensed drugs. To overcome communication barriers through the use of interpreters or other forms of communication.

Person specification

Royal Free World Class Values

Essential criteria

• Demonstrable ability to meet the Trust Values

Education & professional Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council
• Post graduate certificate in pharmacy practice or equivalent
• Post graduate diploma in pharmacy practice or equivalent

Desirable criteria

• Advanced qualification in specialist area
• Registered supplementary or independent prescriber

Experience

Essential criteria

• Demonstrable experience working as a hospital pharmacist and at proven experience providing a clinical service to a specialty
• Multidisciplinary working
• Evidence of clinical audit/drug evaluation/practice research and the promotion of evidence based practice
• Experience in delivering education and training

Desirable criteria

• Experience providing a clinical service for private patients
• Experience of managing and analysing drug expenditure

Skills and aptitudes

Essential criteria

• Good written and verbal communication skills
• Good interpersonal skills
• Good presentation skills
• Good teaching and training skills
• Time management & problem solving
• Ability to carry out day to day responsibilities and deal effectively with unpredictable/acute demands
• Ability to justify and reason any advice given should this be challenged
• Ability to communicate with patients/carers and staff of all levels
• Good negotiation skills and the ability to influence senior pharmacy and medical staff, and the multidisciplinary team.
• Ability to work alone and a part of a team
• Ability to work accurately under pressure
• Ability to integrate in a multidisciplinary forum
• Ability to manage difficult and ambiguous situations
• Demonstrates initiative particularly in relation to problem solving.
• Ability to identify and implement best practice
• Ability to identify and manage risk
• Demonstrates advanced clinical knowledge and pharmaceutical care skills
• Expert clinical knowledge on the medical management of oncology and haematology patients , and patients receiving dialysis
• Critical appraisal skills
• Ability to take full responsibility for and be accountable for own actions
• Ability to contribute to business plans, policies and clinical protocols
• Understanding of clinical risk and clinical governance
• Understanding of current national standards, guidelines and service delivery issues relevant to palliative care patients
• Computer literate (including word processing, email & use of internet. Preferably knowledge of spreadsheet and database packages)

Personal Qualities & attributes

Essential criteria

• Enthusiastic, well motivated, hardworking
• Identifies own training needs actively seeks training opportunities and maintains a portfolio of practice.
• Flexibility to work weekends, bank holidays, evenings and on call
• Reliable with good attendance record

• Covid-19 Vaccination

  Getting vaccinated, and getting a booster, remains the best defence against COVID-19.
  We encourage and support staff to get COVID-19 vaccine and a booster dose as and when they are eligible.

• AT* - Apprenticeship Training. Where AT* is entered next to the job title indicates that this vacancy is for an apprenticeship role.
• By applying for this role, you accept if successful, that your personal data may be transferred from the Trust to another NHS organisation where your employment transfers within the NHS. This is in accordance with the streamlining programme which aims at saving you time and improving efficiencies within the NHS when your employment transfers. Therefore we require you to complete your stat and Man e-learning modules prior to joining our organisation.
• If you are an EU/EEA citizen who does not have EU Settlement or Pre-Settled status, you will require a visa to work in the UK.
• 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.

Applications are welcome from people wishing to job share or work flexible patterns. We are committed to equal opportunities.

Please note:

• Due to the high number of applications that are received for some posts we may close this vacancy before the advertised closing date. Therefore please apply for this post as soon as you can, if you are interested and you meet the requirements of the Person Specification
• Only those candidates who clearly demonstrate how they meet the person specification will be shortlisted for this job.
• Interview arrangements will be communicated via email so please check your email regularly following the closing date.

Please be advised that due to exceptionally high demand, all Royal Free accommodation is at full capacity and waiting lists are being held. Average waiting times are 12 months. Please do not rely on Trust accommodation when you commence your role and ensure you investigate alternative accommodation for your arrival.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Documents to download

• 8A JD Senior Pharmacist (PDF, 624.3KB)
• 8A Senior Pharmacist P SPEC (PDF, 304.6KB)
• Functional requirements (PDF, 144.6KB)
• Allied Health Professional - benefits, about RFL, values and governing objectives (PDF, 939.6KB)