Job summaryWe are seeking an enthusiastic and patient-focused Clinical Pharmacist to join our friendly multidisciplinary team. This is an exciting opportunity to deliver high-quality, patient-centred pharmaceutical care and support the safe and effective use of medicines within our GP practice.
The post holder will work within their professional boundaries, supporting and collaborating with GPs, nurses, pharmacy technicians and other clinicians. Working in a patient-facing role, they will provide clinical pharmacy services, medicines optimisation and prescribing support to improve patient outcomes.
The post holder will support practice staff with prescription and medication queries and safer prescribing processes. They will provide expert medicines advice while addressing the health and social care needs of registered patients.
The successful candidate will work alongside our current Clinical Pharmacist within a supportive and collaborative environment, with opportunities to share expertise, develop clinical skills and contribute to service improvement.
The post holder will contribute to medicines optimisation, quality improvement, QOF and Enhanced Services where appropriate, to improve patient outcomes and support efficient service delivery.
Main duties of the jobThe post holder will work as part of the practice multidisciplinary team, providing patient-facing clinical pharmacy services to support safe, effective and evidence-based use of medicines. Working alongside our current Clinical Pharmacist, the post holder will provide expert medicines advice to patients and the wider practice team, supporting prescribing safety, medicines optimisation and improved patient outcomes.
Key responsibilities include undertaking structured medication reviews, supporting patients with long-term conditions, reviewing and optimising medicines and managing medication queries. The post holder will undertake medicines reconciliation following hospital discharge and other transfers of care, identify patients at risk from medicines-related harm, and support safer prescribing systems.
The role will include providing clinical advice to GPs and practice staff, supporting quality improvement initiatives, contributing to prescribing audits, implementing national and local medicines guidance, and supporting QOF and Enhanced Services where appropriate.The post holder will work within their professional scope of practice.
This role offers an excellent opportunity for a pharmacist who is passionate about patient care, medicines optimisation and developing pharmacy services within general practice.
About usThe Market Cross Surgery is seeking an enthusiastic and dedicated Clinical Pharmacist to join our friendly multidisciplinary team. Located in the historic market town of Mildenhall, Suffolk, we provide a supportive and collaborative working environment with excellent access to Bury St Edmunds and Cambridge, offering an excellent work-life balance.
We are an Outstanding-rated CQC practice caring for approximately 12,700 patients. We are a single-site dispensingpractice and a GP Registrar training practice **,** committed to providing high-quality patient care while supporting education and professional development.
Our experienced clinical, nursing, administrative and reception teams work together to deliver excellent services for our patients. We use SystmOne as our clinical system and are part of a proactive Primary Care Network (PCN) with a range of ARRS roles, including paramedics, physiotherapists, social prescribers, health and wellbeing coaches, care coordinators and a Clinical Pharmacist, all working collaboratively to support holistic patient care.
We value our team and promote a positive working environment with protected time for staff wellbeing, including timetabled daily coffee breaks and weekly educational lunchtime meetings with lunch provided.
Joining Market Cross Surgery offers the opportunity to become part of a forward-thinking practice that values teamwork, innovation, professional development and delivering outstanding care to our community.
Job responsibilitiesThe post holder is a pharmacist who acts within their professional boundaries, supporting and working alongside a team of other clinicians.
The postholder will work as part of a multidisciplinary team in a patient-facing role. The post holder will be responsible for the tasks listed below for the individual practices; these may vary from practice to practice.
The post holder may provide primary support to general practice staff regarding prescription and medication queries. They may help support the repeat prescription system, deal with acute prescription requests, and medicines reconciliation on transfer of care and systems for safer prescribing, providing expertise in clinical medicines advice while addressing both and social care needs of patients in the GP practice(s).
The post holder may provide clinical leadership on medicines optimisation and quality improvement and manage some aspects of the quality and outcomes framework and enhanced services.
The post holder may ensure that the practice integrates with community and hospital pharmacy to help utilise skill mix, improve patient outcomes, ensure better access to health care, and help manage workload. The role is pivotal to improving care and operational efficiencies, so it requires motivation and passion to deliver excellent service within general practice.
Primary responsibilitiesPatient facing long-term conditions (LTC)See (where appropriate) patients with single or multiple medical conditions where medicine optimisation is required (e.g. COPD, asthma).
Review the ongoing need for each medicine, a review of monitoring needs and an opportunity to support patients with their medicine taking, ensuring they get the best use of their medicines. Make appropriate recommendations to senior pharmacists or GPs for medicine improvement.
Patient-facing clinical medication reviewUndertake clinical medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for nurses and/or GPs on prescribing and monitoring.
Patient-facing domiciliary clinical medication reviewUndertake clinical medication reviews with patients and produce recommendations for senior pharmacists, nurses, and/or GPs on prescribing monitoring.
Attend and refer patients to multidisciplinary case conferences.
Management of common/minor/self-limiting ailmentsManaging the caseload of patients with common/minor/self-limiting ailments while working within a scope of practice and limits of competence.
Signposting to community pharmacy and referring to GPs or other health care professionals where appropriate.
Patient-facing medicines supportProvide patient-facing clinics for those with questions, queries, and concerns about their medicines in the practice.
Telephone medicines supportProvide a telephone help line for patients for those with questions, queries, and concerns about their medicines.
Medicine information to practice staff and patientsAnswer relevant medicine-related enquiries from GPs, other practice staff, other healthcare teams (e.g. community pharmacy), and patients with queries about medicine, suggesting and recommending solutions.
Provide follow-ups for patients to monitor the effect of any changes.
Unplanned hospital admissionsReview the use of medicines most commonly associated with unplanned hospital admissions and readmissions through audit and individual patient reviews.
Put in place changes to reduce the prescribing of these medicines to high-risk patient groups.
Management of medicines at discharge from hospitalsTo reconcile medicines following discharge from hospitals, intermediate care and into care homes, including identifying and rectifying unexplained changes and working with patients and community pharmacists to ensure patients receive the medicines they need post discharge.
Set up and manage systems to ensure continuity of medicines supply to high-risk groups of patients (e.g. those with medicine compliance aids or those in care homes).
SignpostingEnsure that patients are referred to the appropriate health care professional for the appropriate level of care within an appropriate period of time, e.g. pathology results, common/minor ailments, acute conditions, long-term medical reviews, etc.
Repeat prescribingReview practice repeats prescribing policies
Manage the repeat prescribing reauthorisation process by reviewing patient requests for repeat prescriptions and reviewing medicines reaching review dates and flagging up those needing a review.
Ensure patients have appropriate monitoring tests in place when required.
Risk stratificationIdentification of cohorts of patients at high risk of harm from medicines through pre prepared practice computer searches. This might include risks that are patient related, medicine related or both.
Service developmentContribute pharmaceutical advice for the development and implementation of new services that have medical components (e.g. advice on treatment pathways and patient information leaflets).
Information managementAnalyse, interpret and present medicines data to highlight issues and risks to support decision making.
Medicines quality improvementsUndertake clinical audits in prescribing in areas directed by the GPs, feedback the results and implement changes in conjunction with the practice team.
Medicines safetyImplement changes to medicines resulting from MHRA alerts, product withdrawal, and other local and national guidance.
Implementation of local and national guidelines and formulary recommendations
Make recommendations to GPs for medicines that should be prescribed by hospital doctors (red drugs) or subject to shared care (amber drugs).
Assist practices in seeing and maintaining a practice formulary that is hosted on the practices computer system
Audit the practices compliance against NICE technology assessment guidance.
Provide newsletters or bulletins on important prescribing messages.
Education and trainingProvide education and training to primary health care teams on therapeutic and medicines optimisation.
Care Quality CommissionWork with the general practice team to ensure the practice is compliant with CQC standards where medicines are involved.
Public healthTo support public health campaigns.
To provide specialist knowledge on all public health programmes available to the public.
Collaborative Working RelationshipsRecognise the roles of other colleagues within the organisation and their role to patient care.
Demonstrate use of appropriate communication to gain the co-operation of relevant stakeholders
The ability to work as part of a team
Able to recognise personal limitations and refer to more appropriate colleagues where necessary
Actively work towards developing and maintaining effective working relationships
Foster and maintain strong links with all services across the locality
Demonstrate the ability to integrate general practice with community and hospital pharmacy teams
Liaise with colleagues, including pharmacists on prescribing-related matters ensuring consistency of patient care
Liaise with other stakeholders, including but not limited to : Patients, GPs and other clinical staff, other health care professionals, locality / GP prescribing lead, community nurses and other allied health care professionals, community and hospital pharmacy teams and hospital staff with responsibilities for prescribing and medicines optimisation.
Knowledge, Skills, and Experience RequiredCompletion of an undergraduate degree in pharmacy and registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council.
Have experience and an awareness of common, acute, and long-term conditions that are likely to be seen in general practice
Recognises priorities when problem-solving and identifies deviations from the normal pattern, and is able to refer to seniors or GPs when appropriate
Able to follow legal, ethical, professional, and organisational policies/procedures and codes of conduct
Involves patients in decisions about prescribed medicines and supporting adherence as per NICE guidelines
Leadership and managementDemonstrate understanding of the pharmacy role in governance and is able to implement this appropriately in the workplace.
Engage with patient participation groups (PPGs) involving PPGs in the development of the role and the practices
Demonstrate understanding of the process for effective resource utilisation
Demonstrate the ability to identify and resolve risk management issues according to policy/protocol
The ability to motivate self to achieve goals
Promotes equality and diversity
Demonstrate the ability to extend boundaries of service delivery within the team
Education, Training and DevelopmentUnderstands and demonstrates the characteristics of a role model to members in the team/service
Demonstrates understanding of the mentorship process
Demonstrates self-development through continuous professional development
Ensures appropriate clinical supervision is in place to support development
Participate in the delivery of formal education programmes
Demonstrates an understanding of practice policies and procedures
NB: This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of responsibilities, and it is expected that you will participate in a wide range of activities.Person SpecificationQualificationsEssential- Degree or equivalent recognised pharmacy qualification.
- Registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC).
- Experience of working as a pharmacist within a clinical setting.
- Understanding of medicines optimisation and safe prescribing principles.
- Awareness of common acute and long-term conditions managed within primary care.
- Experience providing patient-centred consultations and medicines advice.
- Ability to recognise clinical priorities, identify risks and escalate appropriately.
- Understanding of professional, legal and ethical responsibilities.
Desirable- Independent Prescriber qualification
- Completion of the Primary Care Pharmacy Education Pathway (PCPEP) or equivalent postgraduate clinical pharmacy training.
- Relevant postgraduate clinical pharmacy qualifications.
- Experience working in general practice or primary care.
- Experience undertaking Structured Medication Reviews (SMRs).
- Experience using clinical systems such as SystmOne.
- Experience supporting prescribing audits, quality improvement projects and medicines safety initiatives.
Disclosure and Barring Service CheckThis 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.
UK RegistrationApplicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see the NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
