Clinical Pharmacist

Job summary
Join our friendly and supportive pharmacy team and help make a real difference to patient care across East Cornwall.

East Cornwall Primary Care Network (PCN) is looking for an enthusiastic and patient-focused Clinical Pharmacist to join our established pharmacy team.

East Cornwall PCN comprises seven GP practices working collaboratively to provide care for a population of approximately 71,000 patients across East Cornwall.

This is an exciting opportunity to work across our member practices as part of a multidisciplinary team, supporting high-quality patient care through medicines optimisation and clinical pharmacy services. While the successful applicant will be primarily aligned to a designated practice, they will also contribute to projects, service development and collaborative initiatives across the wider PCN pharmacy team.

The role offers a varied workload, opportunities for professional development and the chance to build strong working relationships with both patients and practice teams. Whether you are already working in primary care or looking to bring your skills and experience from community or secondary care, we offer a supportive environment with access to training, clinical supervision and opportunities to further develop your clinical practice.

No two days are the same, making this an ideal opportunity for a pharmacist looking for a varied and rewarding role within primary care.

Main duties of the job
The post holder will work within one of the East Cornwall Primary Care Network General Practices, as well as being co located in our new and exciting pharmacy hub, where we are currently providing primary care services to a registered practice population across a number of sites and to unregistered patients with an immediate need. The post holder will also be involved in population health management as part of a large PCN Clinical Pharmacy teams, supported by senior pharmacists, other clinical pharmacists and pharmacy technicians.

This is an exciting opportunity to provide key pharmacist expertise to GP practices within the locality. As a Clinical Pharmacist in an East Cornwall practice you will manage your own clinics to see patients for medication reviews, assist the practice team with prescribing related issues and treat patients with uncomplicated acute illness. You will help support the East PCN with core medicine optimisation activities and ensure the safe and effective use of medicines across East Cornwall. You will be encouraged to develop a clinical specialism.

The post holder will be contributing towards a one team culture throughout the organisation and promoting a patient centred ethos of Putting Patients First. The post holder will be an integral part of the practice team at the practice working as part of the multi-disciplinary team of doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals, whilst also spending some of your time working alongside colleagues.

About us
East Cornwall PCN is a collaborative network of seven GP practices serving a population of approximately 71,000 patients across East Cornwall.

Our pharmacy team works closely with practices to support medicines optimisation, improve patient outcomes and deliver high-quality clinical pharmacy services. We are committed to developing our workforce and creating an environment where staff feel supported, valued and able to contribute to service improvement.

Working across multiple practices provides a unique opportunity to develop a broad range of clinical and professional skills while being part of a supportive and collaborative team.

Why Join East Cornwall PCN?

• Be part of an established and respected pharmacy team.
• Primarily work with a designated practice, enabling you to build meaningful relationships and become an integral member of the local practice team.
• Collaborate with colleagues across seven GP practices, gaining broad primary care experience.
• Contribute to PCN-wide projects, service development and quality improvement initiatives.
• Benefit from flexible, hybrid working arrangements.
• Work closely with a range of healthcare professionals across primary care.
• Access learning and development opportunities.
• Develop specialist clinical interests and broaden your experience.
• Contribute to innovations and improvements that support better patient care.
• Enjoy living and working in Cornwall.

Job responsibilities
Job purpose
The post holder will deliver core clinical pharmacist duties to our practices within the East Cornwall Primary Care Network as one of the multidisciplinary clinical team. Duties will include medicines reviews, independent prescribing, diagnosis and treatment of non-complex acute illness, patient clinical disease reviews and providing expertise to the wider clinical and administrative teams within the practice.

Key duties and responsibilities
Clinical responsibilities

• Identify patients requiring medication review and conduct appropriate medication review clinics or home visits if required by the organisation/practices and liaise with carers, Community Health teams or social care staff in order to optimise drug therapy, reduce polypharmacy and minimise unnecessary waste, communicating directly with patients as necessary.
• Provide medicines and long term disease advice and support to GP practice staff, practice registered patients, and the wider practice team such as community staff (district nurses, mid-wives, and physiotherapists) where appropriate.
• Help support the safe and effective operation of the prescribing system in the GP practice, including updating repeat medication regimes, issuing of appropriate acute prescriptions, ordering relevant laboratory testing, and where necessary completing patient referrals (for example audiology, x-ray, diabetes prevention schemes).
• Deal with appropriate patient presentations, such as minor illnesses, without direct GP involvement / Provide pharmaceutical input to chronic disease management, as appropriate Provide make every contact count public health education interventions to patients.
• Provide pharmaceutical support to a designated group of GP practices or care settings to enable them to develop, implement and monitor an agreed prescribing plan which meets the objectives of the medicines management plan.
• Assist practices/ care settings in developing formularies, guidelines and policies to ensure the implementation of NICE guidelines, National Service Frameworks and the requirements of the medicines-related aspects of the GMS contract.
• Advise GPs, care staff and primary health care teams on risk management processes relating to the prescribing and monitoring of specialist drugs e.g. controlled drugs and those subject to shared care arrangements.
• Support practices to review specific areas of prescribing, specified by the line management or identified with the GP prescribing lead, including the interpretation of e-PACT data and the use of practice information to review prescribing and identify areas for action.
• Assist with the development and ongoing review of practice policy with regard to repeat prescribing systems and repeat dispensing to encourage the implementation of prescribing guidance and monitoring guidelines where appropriate.
• Liaise with Community Pharmacists to encourage them to reinforce changes made, encouraging them to identify savings which can be achieved with regard to generics, dose optimisations etc. and to assist in building their relationship with the practice.
• Answer any medicine related queries from GPs, care settings, practice staff, PALS, social care staff and the general public in a timely and appropriate manner, us