Divisional Lead Pharmacist - General and Specialist Medicine (NHS AfC: Band 8a) - General and S[...]

Ashford and St. Peter's Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; Chertsey; On-site; GBP 55,000 - 63,000

Job description

Employer Ashford and St. Peter's Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Employer type NHS

Site St Peter's Hospital

Town Chertsey

Salary £55,877 - £62,626 per annum inc. HCAS

Salary period Yearly

Closing 07/04/2025 23:59

Divisional Lead Pharmacist - General and Specialist Medicine

NHS AfC: Band 8a

Job overview

Are you a clinical Pharmacist looking to develop your leadership skills and take on a key role in shaping the future of pharmacy services?

We are seeking an experienced Pharmacist to lead and further develop our Pharmacy Services in general and specialist medicine at St Peter's Hospital.

In this pivotal role, you will be responsible for:

• Ensuring the delivery of a high-quality clinical pharmacy service that meets the needs of patients and healthcare professionals across general and specialist medicine within and associated with the Trust.
• Leading, planning, and advancing specialist clinical pharmacy services, providing expert advice on pharmaceutical matters to maximise safe, cost-effective, and appropriate prescribing practices.

As one of the Lead pharmacists for General and Specialist Medicine, you will be a vital leader within our team, shaping the future direction of pharmacy services, fostering collaboration, enhancing patient care, and driving continuous improvement.

The ASPH Pharmacy Team is known for being one of the friendliest in the Southeast, often referred to as a family. We pride ourselves on being warm, diverse, welcoming, and fun, committed to supporting our staff in providing exceptional patient care. Opportunities for further post-graduate education and qualifications in both leadership and clinical areas are available.

Join us in making a positive impact on patient care while furthering your professional journey in a supportive and dynamic environment.

Main duties of the job

• To act as a point of referral from pharmacists and other healthcare professionals on medicines optimisation in general and specialist medicine.
• Liaise with the multidisciplinary team to promote safe, effective use of medicines in general and specialist medicine services, acting as an expert resource in this practice area.
• Establish and develop strong and effective links with senior management within the division, in order to maintain and develop the contribution of pharmacy to cost-effective, safe and efficient prescribing and utilisation of medicines.
• Co-ordinate, develop and participate in the provision of the ward clinical pharmacy service; thus facilitating the provision of a high quality and cost-effective pharmaceutical care service to patients and other service users.
• Work collaboratively with other clinical leaders within the Trust to plan and implement improvement plans to meet national, regional and local objectives related to optimising medicines prescribing in general and specialist medicine.
• Support the team of clinical pharmacy staff within general and specialist medical clinical areas and in partnership with other senior pharmacy staff as necessary, to ensure the provision of core clinical pharmacy services.
• Liaise with consultants regarding medicine prescribing issues within their specialty to ensure maximum benefit in the treatment of those patients, in-line with local and national guidelines.

Working for our organisation

Ashford and St. Peters Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust serves a population of more than 410,000 people living in North-West Surrey, parts of Hounslow and beyond.

Over 3,700 highly trained doctors, nurses, midwives, therapists, healthcare scientists and other support staff make up our workforce, providing a wide range of services across our two hospital sites, Ashford, Surrey and St Peter's, Chertsey, Surrey.

We also run many specialist clinics in the community and local community hospitals and other healthcare facilities.

Our vision is to be one of the best healthcare Trusts in the country. There has never been a better time to join us in the NHS at ASPH. We are committed to providing continuous professional development and flexibility to shape our workforce around our patient care.

We can offer you the full range of NHS benefits/discounts and in addition:

• Excellent pension scheme and annual leave entitlement
• On-site Nurseries
• On-site staff cafes
• On-site parking
• Salary Sacrifice schemes including wage stream, lease cars, Cycle to Work schemes and home electronics

Adverts may close early, so applicants are encouraged to submit an application as soon as possible.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

We are looking for people willing to show their commitment to delivering excellence and working with us to make Pharmacy a great place to be for all our staff and meet the challenges of Hospital Pharmacy in the modern-day NHS.

A can-do and flexible approach is essential as is a commitment to self and service development. Applicants should also ideally:

• have significant hospital experience, including previous experience of providing a clinical pharmacy service above Foundation level.
• be in possession of a postgraduate clinical pharmacy diploma (or equivalent)

Clinical Services and Leadership

• Provides a specialist clinical pharmacy service to the nominated division at Ashford and St Peters’ NHS Foundation Trust. Covers other wards in the absence of colleagues.
• Participates in initiatives to promote an effective, proactive discharge medicine management system at Ashford and St Peters’ NHS Foundation Trust.
• Reviews and assists in the development of relevant policies and guidelines.
• Provides a point of contact for medical and nursing staff.
• Provides pharmaceutical input into the nominated division clinical teams by attending relevant meetings and providing pharmaceutical advice to healthcare professionals.
• Liaises with doctors, nurses and pharmacists to ensure that patients receive high quality pharmaceutical care as inpatients and at the time of discharge.
• Participates in consultant / clinical ward rounds where applicable.

Medicines and Financial Management

• Assists Divisional Managers to identify, report and present key prescribing issues, variations from the norm, budget pressures and exceptions to protocol compliance arising from increased drug expenditure within their areas of responsibility.
• Develops initiatives to address identified prescribing issues and promote cost effective prescribing and drug expenditure control within their areas of responsibility.
• Promotes adherence to the hospital formulary, treatment guidelines and protocols.
• Provides evaluated information for the paediatric and neonatal services that meet Drugs and Therapeutics Committee requests and upon such occasions attends the meetings as a specialist source of reference.
• Works alongside the Trust’s Medication Safety Officer in identifying medication risks within the division and exploring ways of minimising these risks.
• Investigates incidents undertaking Root Cause Analysis where appropriate for medication incidents within the neonatal clinical setting.
• The post holder will also be the first point of contact for dealing with and advising on any drug errors within their clinical area and with any patient and staff complaints regarding the pharmacy service as a whole.

Education and training

• Assists in the training of pharmacists, trainee pharmacy students, undergraduate pharmacy students, student pharmacy technicians and pharmacy technicians and other healthcare professionals.
• Actively contribute to the departments’ strategy for training and development including acting as and Educational or Practice Supervisor for the diploma programme or trainee pharmacists.
• Be responsible for undertaking work, study days, reading etc. as a means of personal development, especially towards the organisational needs of the post.
• Undertake Continuous Professional Development in accordance with the requirements of the General Pharmaceutical Council.

Person specification

Qualifications and Further Training

• M. Pharm degree in Pharmacy (4 years vocational degree) or equivalent.
• Professional registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC).
• Post Graduate Diploma in Pharmacy /Clinical Practice, or equivalent experience.

Knowledge

• Advanced detailed clinical knowledge of drugs and therapeutic trends within the specialist area.
• Knowledge of NHS commissioning processes.
• Experience in writing guidelines/policies/procedures.
• Experience of the practical implementation of national guidance in drug use (e.g. NICE).
• Evidence of having written, supervised, conducted and implemented the outcomes of clinical audit.

Experience

• Extensive recent post-registration hospital experience as a clinical pharmacist.
• Experienced clinical pharmacist who has covered a range of clinical specialities.
• Previous management experience with responsibility for pharmacy staff.
• Highly specialised knowledge of drugs and therapeutic trends in GSM.
• Experience of drug expenditure analysis and reporting.
• Experience of developing and leading on projects including change management and service development.
• Experience as a personal tutor to a range of pre and post-registration pharmacy staff groups.
• Experience in specialist clinical area.

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.