Band 8a - Advanced Clinical Pharmacist for Virtual Ward

NHS; London; On-site; GBP 61,000 - 69,000

Job description

Band 8a - Advanced Clinical Pharmacist for Virtual Ward

The advanced pharmacist will provide a highly specialist clinical and professional pharmaceutical service to virtual ward at Whittington Hospital. They will need to support the wider multidisciplinary team in developing sound governance, building out pharmacy related pathways across the both the ICO and NCL, improve medications optimisation, ensure high quality, safe medication provision and support education across the service in relation to prescribing and administration of medication.

These teams offer clinically stable patients an enhanced supported discharge from the acute hospital focusing on shortening inpatient length of stay by offering nursing care at home as an alternative to continued hospital stay, for up to two weeks.

The post holder will proactively manage a caseload of patients requiring complex case management in order to prevent hospital admissions and facilitate early discharge to improve patient health outcomes. Patients requiring case management in the virtual ward and Rapid Response services will be identified by case-finding in the Ambulatory Emergency Care (AEC) unit, Accident and Emergency department, Whittington Hospital, UCLH and LAS, Care Homes, Community Nurses and via GP referral and NHS 111 referrals.

Main duties of the job

Facilitate the early discharge ('step-down') of patients from Whittington Health and UCLH inpatient wards and complete their recovery in the home environment by working collaboratively with the AEC Consultant. Also contribute to admission avoidance for 'step-up' patients via the complex frailty virtual ward pathway and rapid response services.

Provide and develop a specialist clinical pharmacy service to improve the quality of patient care and to promote evidence-based, cost-effective prescribing and use of medicines. Identify risks related to medicines and manage these to ensure patient safety and improve patient experience.

To help with overall governance of medication within the Virtual Wards.

Lead on projects and audits to monitor the delivery of the pharmacy service as the virtual ward evolves.

To ensure safe and secure handling of medications as dictated by the Whittington and RPS standards.

To support the provision of clinical pharmacy services to patients requiring pharmaceutical support once discharged from the hospital to Virtual Wards.

To provide day to day management of medication provision to Virtual Wards.

To support medicines management and medication optimisation activities within the Virtual Wards and providing support to the wider multidisciplinary team (MDT) in this area, when needed.

To help with integration of pharmacy services across adult community services and the acute site.

About us

Whittington Health serves a richly diverse population and works hard to ensure that all our services are fair and equally accessible to everyone. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the way we look after our staff. We aim to employ a workforce which is as representative as possible of this population, so we are open to the value of differences in age, disability, gender, marital status, pregnancy and maternity, race, sexual orientation, and religion or belief. The Trust believes that as a public sector organisation we have an obligation to have recruitment, training, promotion and other formal employment policies and procedures that are sensitive to these differences. We think that by doing so, we are better able to treat our patients as well as being a better place to work.

Job responsibilities

Be aware of and utilise appropriate resources within the Virtual Wards team and in the provision of total patient care. To help manage the team on a day to day basis, supporting junior staff with decision making and skills development.

Act as a link pharmacist to AEC consultants, GPs, Community Nurses, LAS, Social Services and other relevant professional areas as necessary.

Undertake a comprehensive baseline assessment for each identified patient in conjunction with the AEC consultant, patient, relatives, carers and patient care team.

Use the assessment to agree and implement a patient held personalised plan of care to be agreed with the patient, relatives and carers and the patient care team.

Ensure that there are effective communications with other agencies (including Out of Hours Services) about care plans and maximise the input of these agencies to support patients at home. Promote self-management and health gain through patient education and health promotion activity.

Prescribe medication as appropriate and help with auditing and monitoring of the overall service prescribing. Further education and guidance for wider MDT around prescribing practice.

Perform and document episodic examinations to support proactive monitoring of chronic diseases and identification of early symptoms of exacerbation and liaise with professionals including the Lead Matron as necessary.

Work collaboratively with the AEC consultant or GP (as agreed) and liaise following any significant event, to review and amend treatment.

Ensure that as far as possible the patient care is provided in the community and to work with the AEC consultant, ward consultants and/or General Practitioner and patient care team to facilitate this and reduce hospital admission.

Person Specification

Education / Qualifications

• MPharm (or equivalent)
• Registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) Great Britain or an equivalent EU body
• Further post graduate qualification Diploma/MSc in Pharmacy Practice or Clinical Pharmacy, or equivalent
• Membership of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society
• Member of relevant professional clinical groups (e.g. UKCPA)

Skills and Abilities

• Able to communicate with patients and all grades of healthcare staff (verbally and in writing)
• Prioritisation and time management, and when under pressure
• Able to influence and inform decisions about the pharmaceutical management of patients
• Experience of providing education and training to pharmacy and nursing staff, doctors and other AHPs.
• Confident & assertive when dealing with other professionals
• Demonstrates the ability to communicate complex information combined with good negotiating and presentation skills
• Ability to communicate with patients particularly on sensitive or complex issues.
• Ability to manage difficult and ambiguous situations including those that may require prompt decisions when faced with highly complex drug information and situations.
• Ability to identify and manage risk
• Proven delivery of staff assessment and appraisal
• Excellent numeracy skills and analysis and interpretation of data
• Ability to interpret local or national guidance and translate them to front line clinical practice

Knowledge and Experience

• Previous experience of working within Acute Medicine or Elderly Care
• Knowledge of national priorities contributing to the development of Frailty and Acute Medicine services
• Demonstrates awareness of and commitment to the principles of clinical governance
• Experience of working in a hospital pharmacy department providing a wide range of services.
• Experience of working within Frailty units or Ambulatory Care environments
• Knowledge of the wider NCL healthcare system and priorities
• Knowledge of change management principles
• Experience of contributing or leading quality improvement projects
• Previous participation in audit and/or research.
• Understanding of health service issues in primary and secondary care.
• Experience of identifying cost saving opportunities
• Experience of line management and/or team leadership
• Experience of MDT working
• Experience of development of clinical policies and guidelines

Personal Qualities

• Reliable
• Demonstrates initiative, motivation & enthusiasm for the post
• Demonstrates an active appreciation of the importance of equality, diversity and inclusion
• Self-motivated
• Flexible
• Ability to work under pressure whilst maintaining accuracy and attention to detail
• Able to work on own initiative or as part of a multidisciplinary team.
• Commitment to continuing personal development

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.

£61,927 to £68,676 a year 61,927-68,676 Inclusive Inner HCAs per annum