Job summaryAn opportunity has arisen to join the clinical pharmacy team at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, working primarily with the Lewisham Community Mental Health Teams.
Pharmacy is an integral part of Lewisham's developing community mental health services, and this Band 7 role offers the opportunity to work directly with service users and multidisciplinary teams to improve medicines use, continuity of care and outcomes closer to home.
You will be a key clinical pharmacy contact for allocated community mental health teams, providing patient-facing consultations, specialist advice on psychotropic medicines and practical support to improve monitoring, adherence and shared decision-making. You will work across organisational boundaries with primary care, community pharmacies, acute hospitals, inpatient wards and crisis services.
We are looking for a pharmacist with relevant mental health experience, sound clinical judgement and the confidence to manage an autonomous workload while contributing to a multidisciplinary team. Experience of primary care or community mental health services is desirable, but a clear commitment to developing in this area is essential.
You will join a supportive Lewisham pharmacy team, receive regular professional supervision and have access to development opportunities in mental health pharmacy, independent prescribing, quality improvement, teaching and research.
Main duties of the jobYou will provide a specialist clinical pharmacy service to allocated Lewisham Community Mental Health Teams, working closely with prescribers, care coordinators, nurses and other multidisciplinary colleagues.
Your work will include reviewing complex medication regimens; advising on the initiation, adjustment and discontinuation of medicines; undertaking consultations with service users and carers; supporting the monitoring of high-risk psychotropic medicines and physical health; and addressing practical problems that may prevent people from gaining the best outcomes from treatment.
You will support safe transfers of care between community teams, primary care, community pharmacies, acute hospitals, inpatient wards and crisis services. You will also contribute to medicines safety, staff training, audit, quality improvement and the collection of meaningful patient and service outcome data.
If you are qualified as an independent prescriber, you will prescribe within your competence and agreed management plans.
The post includes regular travel between the Ladywell Unit and community team bases across Lewisham. You may also contribute to inpatient or dispensary services and participate in the pharmacy on-call, late-duty, weekend or bank-holiday services where applicable.
About usSouth London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust provides a wide range of local and specialist mental health services. We work closely with the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King's College London and are part of King's Health Partners.
Our pharmacy department provides clinical and dispensing services across inpatient and community settings. The department has nationally and internationally recognised expertise in psychotropic medicines, specialist medicines information, education, research and clinical trials, and contributes to the
Maudsley Prescribing Guidelines in Psychiatry. We are the world's leading pharmacy centre for research in psychiatry, having published over 300 clinical papers in the past 25 years.
You will join the Lewisham pharmacy team, based at the Ladywell Unit on the University Hospital Lewisham site, and work with community mental health teams across the borough. The team supports a diverse local population and works closely with inpatient, crisis, primary care, community pharmacy and acute hospital services.
The Ladywell Unit is close to Lewisham town centre and has good rail and bus connections.
We offer regular supervision, a strong programme of professional development and opportunities to contribute to teaching, quality improvement, research and service innovation.
Job responsibilities- To provide a specialist clinical pharmacy service to allocated SLaM community mental health teams and, where required, home treatment teams
- To work as an integral member of the multidisciplinary team, providing evidence-based advice on complex medicines-related issues, including drug interactions, high-dose antipsychotic treatment, unlicensed medicines and areas where the evidence base is limited.
- To support safe transfers of care by liaising with primary care, community pharmacies, acute hospitals, inpatient wards, home treatment teams and other relevant services.
- To have medicines related consultations with patients and carers; involve patients in treatment decisions; improve patient and carer satisfaction with information they receive about medicines
- To improve physical health outcomes for community mental health patients, for example by participating in vaccination programmes, physical health clinics and physical health monitoring programmes
- To support the community teams to use medicines safely and effectively and reduce medicines wastage
- To implement medicines optimisation and quality improvement programmes in the teams
- To provide medicines related training to community mental health team staff and other members of the pharmacy team
- To prescribe medicines to service users within competence and agreed management plans
- To participate in the inpatient or dispensary service on a rotational basis where required to by the site lead pharmacist
- To record clinical interventions, patient outcomes and relevant service data to demonstrate the impact of the pharmacy service and inform medicines safety and service improvement
Person SpecificationQualificationsEssential- MPharm or equivalent
- Registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC), with mandatory CPD
Desirable- 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
ExperienceEssential- Relevant experience in patient-facing pharmacist roles
- Relevant experience in NHS hospital pharmacy
- Previous experience in providing clinical mental health services
Desirable- Previous experience in working in primary care networks or GP practices
SkillsEssential- 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- Good computer skills, in particular for completing spreadsheets, graphs and reports (A)
- Ability to direct own learning and adapt quickly to new and challenging situations
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). 
