About this role
Job summary
Are you a pharmacist who is passionate about developing your knowledge and skills in general practice, while making a meaningful difference to patient care?
Our PCN continues to support its Arc Primary Care pharmacy team with additional roles and resources, during this period of developing and restructuring we are looking for clinical pharmacists to join the growing pharmacy team, to work alongside our existing workforce of senior clinical pharmacists, clinical pharmacists and pharmacy technicians.
The posts available are at:
The Brimington Surgery, previous Winners of the Primary Care Practice Team of the year, based on Church Street in Brimington, a busy village on the outskirts of Chesterfield
Inspire Health, whose in house pharmacy team, including two experienced advanced pharmacists, support a broad range of dynamic and enhanced roles for pharmacy professionals, based in Avenue House Surgery in central Chesterfield and the Hasland Medical Centre.
We are looking for clinicians who are committed to improving patient care and passionate about clinical pharmacy.
Whilst experience of working in general practice and an independent prescriber qualification are preferable, pharmacists with limited general practice experience, including newly qualified pharmacists, would be considered.
The post holders would be supported in enrolling on, and completing, the CPPE Primary Care Pharmacy Education Pathway (PCPEP), where not already completed.
Main duties of the job
The post holder will work within their clinical competencies as part of a multidisciplinary team to deliver high quality clinical medicines management.
The role will include providing patient facing Structured Medication Reviews (SMRs), supporting the management of long term conditions, optimising medicines at transfer of care, and contributing to systems that promote safer prescribing. The post holder will also support the management of repeat prescription authorisations and reauthorisations, as well as acute prescription requests, ensuring prescribing remains safe, effective, and aligned with best practice.
In undertaking this role, the post holder will address both the public health and wider social care needs of patients registered at GP practices within the Primary Care Network (PCN). They will work collaboratively with the wider practice and PCN teams to improve health outcomes and reduce healthcare inequalities.
The post holder will receive clinical supervision, mentorship, and professional support from senior and lead clinical pharmacists, who will support the development, governance, and oversight of their role.
This role is central to improving the quality of care, patient experience, and operational efficiency within general practice and therefore requires a high level of motivation, professionalism, and commitment to service improvement.
About us
The Chesterfield and Dronfield Primary Care Network (PCN) is one of the largest in the UK, delivering care to more than 100,000 patients across Chesterfield and Dronfield, on the doorstep of the Peak District.
We deliver enhanced services within the PCN designed to support and enhance the services offered by our member GP Practices within Chesterfield. We do this by employing staff to work through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme and finding innovative and sustainable solutions to the changing needs of the Practices; we bid for contracts to help tackle health inequalities and drive up standards of care within the Chesterfield and Dronfield locality.
Our mission: Committed to high quality collaborative person-centred care. Delivered with integrity and transparency, improving health and wellbeing for all.
Benefits of working with us:
NHS Pension Scheme, offering flexible retirement choices, an ill health retirement pension, life assurance and optional lump sum on retirement On appointment 27 days plus 8 Bank Holiday annual leave entitlement which rises annually with length of service up to 33 days (pro rata for part time staff) Up 5 days professional/study leave per annum (pro rata) Access to Employee Assistance Programme Blue light Card Discount
Arc Primary Care is not an Agenda for Change organisation but does offer structured meritorious pay progression.
Interviews for this post will be held at Dunston Innovation Centre, face to face, on Tuesday 13 October.
Job description Job responsibilities
1. Patient-facing / Remote Medicines Support
Deliver patient-facing medication review clinics, stratifying need across the full spectrum of review types from technical, medicines adherence reviews (including polypharmacy reviews) through to focal long-term condition reviews (see section 3) and holistic SMRs. Provide accessible support for patients with questions, queries, and concerns about their medicines.
2. Medicines-Related Clinical Support for Care Homes
Deliver clinical medication reviews in collaboration with patients, care home staff, and the Ageing Well team, producing clear and evidencebased recommendations for the multidisciplinary team to support medicines optimisation, prescribing, and monitoring. Work collaboratively with care home staff and the Ageing Well team to optimise medicines management and promote safe, effective, and appropriate use of medicines, including updating medication at transfer of care and investigating and responding to requests for medication not on, or as on, repeat. This workstream is coordinated by the PCN's Pharmacy Hub for Assessment Services (PHASe), integrated within The Ageing Well Team, but practice-based pharmacists will need to liaise with the hub, communicating effectively, to ensure an efficienct and seamless care delivery service.
3. Long-Term Condition Clinics
Deliver reviews to patients with single or multiple medical problems where medicine optimisation is required (e.g., respiratory, cardiovascular-reno-metabolic). Review the on-going need for each medicine, monitoring needs and support patients in getting the best use of their medicines (i.e. medicines optimisation). Make appropriate recommendations to Senior Pharmacists or GPs for medicine improvement. Contribute to QOF achievement and IIF targets related to long-term condition management.
4. Patient facing Domiciliary Medication Reviews
Deliver medication reviews to patients in care home or domiciliary settings, working within the PCN's Pharmacy Hub for Assessment Services (PHASe), integrated within The Ageing Well Team. For care home patients, medicines reconciliation and medication review is coordinated through the centralised pharmacy hub. The post holder will work within this hub structure, contributing to and drawing on hub-led clinical oversight, supervision, and workflow support, and producing recommendations for the multidisciplinary team on prescribing, deprescribing, and monitoring. In some practices, medication reviews for care home patients may be delivered outside of the central hub, and some reviews for care home or housebound patients may require home visits.
5. Risk stratification
Identify cohorts of patients at increased risk of harm from medicines using agreed, preprepared practice clinical system searches, including prescribing and clinical decision support software such as Eclipse Live Radar 500 searches. Risks may be patientrelated, medicinerelated, or a combination of both.
Where appropriate, pharmacy technicians will be accountable for reviewing and acting on the outcomes of these searches within their scope of competence, in accordance with agreed protocols. Clinical pharmacists will provide supervision and support where the management of highrisk patients falls outside the pharmacy technicians competence, and will assume responsibility during periods of leave or in exceptional circumstances.
6. Unplanned hospital admissions
Review the use of medicines most commonly associated with unplanned hospital admissions and readmissions through audit and individual patient reviews. Implement changes to reduce the prescribing of these medicines to high-risk patient groups.
7. Medicines Reconciliation
Reconcile medicines following communications from other health settings (e.g., hospital discharges, clinical letters from secondary care, private healthcare providers etc) including identifying, resolving and appropriately escalating unexplained changes to medicines when required. Work collaboratively with patients, carers and the wider MDT to ensure timely access to medicines and continuity of care including those requiring medicines compliance aids and care home residents.
Provide mentorship, supervision, and appropriate delegation of medicines reconciliation activities to pharmacy technicians and junior pharmacists, including foundation pharmacists, in line with their competence and agreed governance arrangements.
8. Medicine Information & Advisory Support
Respond to relevant medicine-related enquiries from GPs, other network staff, other healthcare teams (e.g., community pharmacy) and patients with queries about medicines acting as a visible and accessible medicines expert within the PCN. Suggest and recommend evidence-based solutions. Provide appropriate follow-up where changes are made.
9. Signposting
Ensure that patients are referred to the appropriate healthcare professional for the appropriate level of care within an appropriate time period e.g., pathology results, common/minor ailments, acute conditions, long-term condition reviews etc. Collaborate with and refer to relevant non-clinicians e.g. social prescribing link workers to connect patients with non-clinical community support where wider determinants of health are contributing to medicines non-adherence or health inequalities.
10. Repeat prescribing
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. Support the practice to reduce prescribing errors and promote safe, efficient repeat prescribing workflows.
11. Service development
Contribute pharmaceutical expertise to the development and implementation of new services that have medicinal components (e.g., advice on treatment pathways and patient information leaflets).
12. Information management
Analyse, interpret and present medicines data to highlight issues and risks to support decision making.
13. Medicines quality improvement
Undertake clinical audits of prescribing in areas directed by the GPs and the PCN team, feedback the results and implement changes in conjunction with the relevant practice team.
14. Medicines safety
Implement changes to medicines that result from MHRA alerts, product withdrawal and other local and national guidance. Contribute to the practice's and PCNs patient safety agenda by participating in significant event analysis (SEA), reporting incidents as appropriate, supporting learning from near-misses and medicines errors. Work with the practice team and PCN to embed a culture of medicines safety.
15. Implementation of local and national guidelines and formulary recommendations
Monitor practice prescribing against the local health economys RAG list and make recommendations to GPs for medicines that should be prescribed by hospital doctors (red drugs) or subject to shared care (amber drugs).
16. Education, Mentoring and Clinical Supervision
Provide education and training to primary healthcare team on therapeutics and medicines optimisation. Mentor, supervise and delegate, as appropriate, clinical workflow to pharmacy technicians and more junior pharmacists (including foundation pharmacists), to optimise skill-mix and aid team development.
17. Care Quality Commission
Work with the general practice teams to ensure the practices are compliant with CQC standards where medicines are involved.
18. Public health
Support public health campaigns and provide specialist knowledge on all public health programs available to the general public.
19. Collaborative working arrangements
As part of an integrated pharmacy team, foster and maintain collaborative working relationships with practice teams, ICB colleagues including medicines management pharmacy professionals, the Ageing Well
Team and social prescribing team, and all other relevant services across the PCN and other stakeholders as needed for the collective benefit the practice and its patients.
Person Specification
Skills and Knowledge Essential
Demonstrates understanding of, and conforms to, relevant standards of practice and professional and organisational policies and procedures Awareness of common acute and long-term conditions that are likely to be seen in general practice Excellent Interpersonal, influencing & negotiating skills, to make shared decisions in situations where barriers to this may be present Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to communicate complex and sensitive information clearly and appropriately to a range of audiences, adapting communication to meet different needs and levels of understanding (e.g. patients). Recognises priorities when problem solving and identifies deviations from the normal pattern and able to recognise limitations of own competence, referring to more senior clinical colleagues when appropriate Able to work under pressure and meet deadlines, including prioritisation, time-keeping, adaptability, self-motivation and sustainable working, including when resource levels change. Work effectively independently and as a team member Ability to identify risk and assess/manage risk when working with individuals
Desirable
In depth therapeutic & clinical knowledge and an understanding of evidence-based medicine, clinical terminology, medicines optimisation and shared decision-making An appreciation of GPs and General Practice, including the relationship between GP, PCNs and ICBs in the context of the larger NHS and NHS funding. Experience of collaborative working and building relationships across a variety of organisations Able to plan, manage, monitor, advise & review general medicines optimisation issues in core areas for long term conditions (LTCs) Knowledge of IT systems, including ability to use clinical systems e.g. EMIS/SystmOne, word processing skills, spreadsheets and emails to communicate effectively, document consultations and code accurately and safely, and produce timely and accurate reports Able to obtain and analyse complex technical information with accuracy, appropriate management of errors and logical innovation of solutions
Experience Desirable
Experience of working in Primary Care
Other Essential
Meets DBS reference standards and has a clear criminal record, in line with the law on spent convictions Appropriate Immunisation Status Access to own transport and ability to travel across the locality when required e.g. meetings or visiting care homes
Qualifications Essential
Mandatory registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council
Desirable
Completion/working towards CPPE Primary Care Pharmacy Education Pathway (PCPEP) Clinical Diploma Independent Prescribing or currently working towards qualification
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.
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 Arc Primary Care
Address Arc Primary Care
Dunston Innovation Centre
Dunston Road
CHESTERFIELD
Derbyshire
S41 8NG
United Kingdom
Employer's website https://www.chesterfieldanddronfieldpcn.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)