Job summary
An exciting opportunity has arisen for an internal promotion to a lead clinical pharmacist role within the Surgical Business Unit. This role offers the opportunity to work alongside other lead clinical pharmacists and lead clinical technicians to advance the clinical pharmacy service delivered throughout the Trust.

The post-holder will work collaboratively with senior leaders in the business unit to ensure the service delivered is safe, effective and sustainable. They will offer visible clinical leadership to their team, providing support and developmental opportunities while fostering a positive and inclusive team culture.

We are looking for a forward-thinking, dynamic pharmacist with excellent clinical and decision-making skills, strong organisational abilities, and a passion for delivering outstanding patient care. The successful candidate will demonstrate effective leadership skills, and be committed to driving high standards of care and service delivery.

Interviews will be on the 13th October 2026.

Main duties of the job
As Lead Clinical Pharmacist for Surgery, you will be responsible for the delivery of pharmacy services and medicines optimisation within the Surgical business unit. You will work closely with the other lead clinical pharmacists and the lead clinical pharmacy technicians in the Trust to ensure excellent service provision and share good practice.

This role will involve direct line management of pharmacy staff, service development and continuous review of the clinical pharmacy services provided to ensure key performance indicators are achieved.

You will be a member of the Senior Pharmacy Board contributing to strategic and operational planning; ensuring that the services offered by the department are of high quality and are responsive to the needs of patients, carers and service users, and meet Trust and national recommendations.

You will provide leadership within the Business Unit in all activities that relate to pharmacy and medicines optimisation. This includes service delivery, performance, governance, finance and service development.

About us
Based in the North East of England we provide a range of hospital and community health services from our leading facilities, including the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Blaydon urgent care centre and Bensham Hospital, all within Gateshead.

Established in 2005, we were one of the first foundation trusts in the country and since then have consistently achieved the highest levels of care for patients.

We now employ around 4,800 staff and currently provide 444 hospital beds across the Gateshead region.

Our values should be the 'golden thread' which runs through everything we do - they are the core of who we are. Our five values can easily be remembered by the simple acronym ICORE; Innovation, Care, Openness, Respect, Engagement.

We have a number of staff networks including the Global Ethnic Majority (GEM) network, D-Ability network, LGBTQ+ Network and the Women's Network, to challenge us and help us to constantly improve. Our Armed Forces network is one of our emerging networks.

The health and wellbeing of our staff is one of our highest priorities, and we offer a range of support and initiatives as part of our 'Balance' programme balancegateshead.com to cater for our diverse workforce, so that your individual needs can be supported, allowing you a happy and healthy working experience with us.

Details
Date posted: 22 September 2026
Pay scheme: Agenda for change
Band: Band 8b
Salary: £66,582 to £77,368 a year
per annum
Contract: Permanent
Working pattern: Full-time, Part-time, Flexible working, Compressed hours
Reference number: 297-8266778
Job locations: Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Queen Elizabeth Avenue, Gateshead, NE9 6SX, United Kingdom

Job responsibilities

• Line management of a clinical team will involve appraisals, objective setting and performance management, as well as providing support and professional development opportunities to the team.
• Contribution to the development, implementation and monitoring of medicines-related policies, procedures and guidelines will be essential.
• Work closely with senior leaders within the surgical business unit including senior medical and nursing staff, service line managers and operational leads.
• Have delegated responsibility for the pharmacy budget allocated to the BU and use advanced skills in drug utilisation, drug usage patterns and trends to advise on budgetary issues, inform business planning processes and support the management of the drug spend in the Trust.
• Provide highly specialist medicines support, advice and expertise to the BU via service line meetings, patient safety meetings and participation in the review of incidents and complaints.
• Be the lead contact in cases of complaints or incidents relating to medicines and clinical pharmacy services in the BU.
• Liaise with other healthcare professionals and agencies both within and external to the Trust to consider medicines management / medicines optimisation issues across healthcare interfaces.
• Be an active member and contributor to appropriate clinical and strategic forums, groups and committees as identified by the Chief Pharmacist.
• Ensure that the medicine management and pharmacy services meet, or are working towards meeting, agreed local and national targets, with particular focus on specialities within the BU.
• Work closely with the education and training lead pharmacist to deliver appropriate education, training and supervision to all pharmacy staff within area of responsibility.
• Ensure that staff possess the skills to undertake their delegated duties.
• Work closely with the medicines safety team to support the business unit in the reporting and reviewing of medicines incidents, identifying themes and learning.
• Work with the business unit teams to identify, implement and feedback on specialist medicines audits and projects to ensure the business unit meets Trust and national objectives on safe patient care and cost effective prescribing.
• Lead and develop active pharmacy practice research within the business unit.
• Lead on the safe and secure handling of medicines for the business unit.
• Support in the development and delivery of pharmacy and medicines optimisation strategies, ensuring local engagement with the surgical business unit and wider engagement with the Trust and the Integrated Care Board (ICB).
• Maintain and evidence own competence within clinical practice.

Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential

• Master's Degree in Pharmacy
• Post-graduate clinical pharmacy diploma or relevant experience
• Qualified Independent Prescriber
• Leadership or Management Qualification or relevant experience
• Evidence of CPD and Training

Desirable

• Project Management Qualification

Skills
Essential

• Demonstrable leadership and management skills
• Evidence of team working

Experience
Essential

• Experience of leading a project

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.

Certificate of Sponsorship
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

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: Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust
Address: Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Queen Elizabeth Avenue, Gateshead, NE9 6SX, United Kingdom
Employer's website: https://www.qegateshead.nhs.uk (Opens in a new tab)

Employer contact details
For questions about the job, contact: Deputy Chief Pharmacist, Lynsey Curry, lynsey.curry@nhs.net, 01914456742

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.
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).