Senior Clinical Pharmacist

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South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust has a rich history, well-established community links and an international reputation. We deliver specialist services in the London boroughs of Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark, Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich, Wandsworth and Richmond.

We are committed to provide a high quality and specialist care to our service users and we are recognised for our care and treatment we provide. The Care Quality Commission already rates our services as 'good'.

We launched our five-year strategy, Aiming High; Changing Lives in 2021 together with Our Care Improvement System as our quality management system methodology to make a positive impact on patient care, outcomes and staff experience. By joining SLaM, all staff will get the opportunity to be part of this exciting improvement journey supported with learning and development to harness everyone's potential as change makers.

The trust recognises the unique and valuable contribution that people with lived experience of mental illness can bring to a role. We therefore welcome applications from people with lived experience and consider them as an asset to the Trust.

Our Values

We take pride in providing specialist care to our service users where our Trust values and our promise to be caring, kind, polite, prompt, honest, listen and do what I say I'm going to do is at the heart of everything we do. When you join us, you'll be part of something special.

As a Trust we are happy to talk flexible working.

Job overview

An opportunity has arisen to join our established, friendly, and dynamic clinical pharmacy team at South London and the Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust for a 12-month fixed-term secondment cover starting immediately.

We expect the post-holder to have experience of hospital pharmacy services and some knowledge of mental health pharmacy in order to quickly embed into the ward multidisciplinary teams during this secondment.

The vacancy is at the Bethlem Royal Hospital which also serves the Ladywell Unit in Lewisham, and community mental health teams across Lewisham and Croydon. You may be required to travel to any of these sites on occasion.

We are committed to get the very best out of our staff and support staff in their career aspirations. Once established in post, there are further opportunities for development and career progression in a variety of settings, for example education and training, quality improvement, research, clinical trials, independent prescribing and more.

Main duties of the job

You will provide pharmaceutical care to inpatients and community patients within South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, as well as work in our main dispensary. You will join the on-call rota and late duty rota where applicable. You may be required to travel to various hospital and community mental health teams sites.

You will be supported by a dedicated supervisor and will have the opportunity to undertake short courses on mental health pharmacy and work alongside expert pharmacists in the field.

Working for our organisation

About the team

The pharmacy department provides dispensing services from the Maudsley, Lambeth, Bethlem Royal hospitals and Ladywell unit and a clinical pharmacy service to 1,000 inpatients and 3,000 community patients. The Medicines Advice Centre at the Maudsley is the national centre for information on psychotropics. The department produces the Maudsley Prescribing Guidelines, now on its 15th Edition, and is the world's leading pharmacy centre for research in psychiatry, having published over 300 clinical papers in the past 25 years.

The pharmacy is also part of the Pharmaceutical Sciences Clinical Academic Group (PSCAG) which incorporates more than 1,800 staff and students and includes staff from all four organisations within King's Health Partners with the aim to integrate the work across all partner organisations to improve practice, research and healthcare/academic education and training strategy. Our CAG includes a variety of professional groups, including pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, scientists, healthcare professionals, students and administrative and support staff.

About the location

Bethlem Royal Hospital is based in a beautiful setting in over 200 acres of green space in the London Borough of Bromley, South East London. The hospital has easy access to nearby main roads and have offers free parking. The site is within walking distance from of Eden Park and West Wickham overland stations.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• To deliver a comprehensive clinical pharmacy service to inpatient wards and community mental health teams in line with Trust policies, procedures and standards.
• To support patients to gain maximum benefit from their medicines, through medicines related consultations with patients and carers, involving patients in treatment decisions, and improving patient and carer satisfaction with information they receive about medicines
• To support the multidisciplinary inpatient teams to use medicines safely and effectively and reduce medicines wastage through medicines optimisation and quality improvement programmes, and by providing medicines related training
• To develop post-registration foundation pharmacist skills in accordance with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's (RPS) Foundation Pharmacy Framework and work towards specialist mental health pharmacy skills
• To act as a practice supervisor in the training and education of trainee pharmacists and junior pharmacists
• To prescribe medicines within competence and scope of practice, if qualified to do so by having completed the post-graduate certificate in Independent Prescribing
• To partake in the pharmacy on-call service (Emergency Duty Cover, bank holiday rotas) and a Saturday service.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• MPharm or equivalent
• Registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC), with mandatory CPD

Desirable criteria

• Postgraduate certificate/diploma in mental health or pharmacy practice or equivalent
• Member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society or Member / associate member of the CMHP
• Independent prescriber

Experience

Essential criteria

• Relevant experience in patient-facing pharmacist roles
• Relevant experience in NHS hospital pharmacy

Desirable criteria

• Previous experience in providing clinical mental health services
• Previous experience in working in primary care networks or GP practices

Skills

Essential criteria

• Good written and verbal communication
• Empathy and understanding of medication issues facing people with mental health problems and their carers
• Ability to work without close supervision, making decisions and acting upon them within the limitations and understanding of the job responsibilities, or to refer appropriately
• Good time management with ability to prioritise workload and meet deadlines

Desirable criteria

• Ability to collect and analyse outcome data for service evaluation purposes
• Ability to direct own learning and adapt quickly to new and challenging situations

The Trust is committed to providing services which embrace diversity and that promote equality of opportunity. We are a Disability Confident Employer, we welcome applicants from all sections of the community and people of all protected characteristics. We provide reasonable adjustments for candidates with a disability and are committed to treating people fairly with compassion, respect and dignity and in promoting equality and human rights. We aim to put this commitment into practice by:

• Embedding our commitment to tackling inequality, eliminating discrimination and harassment; promoting equality of opportunity and fostering good relations in our everyday practice
• Ensuring that all our services and all staff understand and support our commitment
• We believe that people who use our services, their carers and our staff, should be treated with compassion, respect and dignity

Please note:

• That all applications for this post will need to be made online
• That you read and understand the Job Description and Person Specification attached to the role. Your Statement in Support should reflect the requirements specified as your application will be judged against these criteria
• That the closing date listed is a guide only and that the vacancy may close earlier should sufficient number of applicants have been received. We advise that you submit your application as early as possible
• That once you have submitted your application you agree to your application being transferred to a 3rd party e-recruitment system. All subsequent information regarding your application will be generated from apps.trac.jobs
• That should you not have heard from us within three weeks from the closing date your application has not been successful
• That priority consideration for applications may be given to at-risk NHS employees
• That should you be successful and appointed, you authorise South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust to confirm your previous NHS service via an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) process
• That we are a smoke-free Trust

SLaM is a Stonewall Diversity Champion , Stonewall is the largest Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Trans (LGBT) rights charity in Europe'

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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

• Job description B7 pharmacist (PDF, 424.6KB)
• SLaM Staff Benefits (PDF, 1.1MB)
• Happy to Talk Flexible Working (PDF, 680.1KB)