Job responsibilities
Principal Responsibilities:
To work on own
initiative, unsupervised, planning and prioritising workload to deliver an
effective service.
To promote and
support the implementation of national policies such as NSFs and NICE where
these relate to medicines use.
Clinical:
To provide appropriately
differentiated specialist advice and education on prescribing and medicines
management to colleagues at the practice level and the NHS and wider
community, including patients or their carers, to facilitate optimal use of
the medicines resource, and to be accountable for that advice.
To undertake medication reviews with patients,
the doctors or other appropriate health care professionals in practice, care
homes, domiciliary or other settings. This will involve offering advice and
explanations about medicines and, where necessary, initiating changes to
ensure patients medication is optimised and referring the patients to other
services when indicated.
To undertake
assessments of patients adherence with medicine use within the home setting
in conjunction with relatives, carers, relevant health and social care staff
and the voluntary sector. To make recommendation to health care service
providers based on this assessment.
To support the
implementation of the PMS contract by addressing performance gaps identified
from the indicator sets in the PMS Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF); in
particular indicators relating to medicines management and use of medicines
to achieve clinical outcomes.
To maintain
knowledge and awareness of current clinical evidence base around medicines,
interpreting this evidence to ensure that advice given to professional
colleagues and patients is current, relevant, accurate and in keeping with
national and local guidelines. In so doing being accountable for ones own
professional actions whilst working within a framework of ethical, legal and
clinical standards.
To recommend
appropriate biochemical monitoring for particular patients, thereafter
referring patients to phlebotomy or other relevant services with the prior agreement of practices.
To contribute to
rational evidence based prescribing across primary and secondary care
ensuring the most cost-effective use of the drugs budget at practice level.
Non-Clinical:
To
maintain a high professional standard, acting in a discreet and professional
manner and respecting the status of patients and professional colleagues.
To
exercise due care and attention whilst working with extraneous equipment.
To
act promptly and efficiently in response to unpredictable situations, being
adaptable to the work environment, while maintaining levels of
concentration. Flexibility to deal
with enquiries or problems raised in the practice.
Training and Education:
To provide
education to patients and their representatives on obtaining repeat
prescriptions, safe storage of medicines, administration and disposal of
medication to reduce medication waste and to minimise risk to the patient,
the wider population and the environment.
To provide
information to patients and their representatives on national or local policy
relating to medicines use. This might include a wide variety of miscellaneous
advice such as; liability for prescription charges, obtaining prescription pre-payment
certificates or possession of controlled drugs when travelling abroad.
To teach and deliver core training on medicines management issues to health care
professionals, practice staff, trainees and undergraduate students.
To undertake and
complete mandatory and other relevant training.
Communication:
To provide
prescribers and patients with pharmaceutical advice.
To raise any
clinical governance issues with ICB Lead for Medicines Management, including
raising any clinical governance concerns and to maintain regular contact with
the practice to keep them informed of progress.
To work in a discreet and
professional manner, respecting and maintaining the confidentiality of
patient specific data.
Data Protection
Where it is a
requirement of the job holder for the post holder to use computers or other
information technology, he/she will be required to ensure that security
procedures are followed as appropriate
and that confidential information for example passwords are not
communicated to unauthorised individuals
General clause
This job
description is not intended to be exhaustive but to indicate that main
responsibilities of the post and may be amended from time to time after
consultation with the post holder
HEALTH AND SAFETY RESPONSIBILITIES
You should take
note that under the Health & Safety at Work Legislation, you are required
to take all reasonable steps while at work to ensure your own health and safety
and the health and safety of those who may be affected by your acts or
omissions at work. You are also required
to co-operate fully with regard to implementation of health and safety
arrangements and you should not interfere with or misuse anything provided in
the interests of Health, Safety and Welfare at Work.
EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES
The Practice is
an equal opportunities employer and the post-holder will be expected to adhere
to all equal opportunities principles.
CONFIDENTIALITY
An employee
shall not as an employee of the Practice or following the termination of
his/her employment with the Practice, disclose other than to an authorised
person or in the course of duty, without lawful authority, any matter or
information which he/she has obtained or to which he/she has had access owing
to his/her official position.
In addition,
you shall be required to comply with the requirements of the Data Protection
Act, in so far as the Practice is concerned.
It should be noted in this connection that any unauthorised disclosure
of information covered by the Act is a criminal offence.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SECURITY POLICY
You are
required to work within the remit of the Practice Security Policy.
As a
consequence of the above unauthorised/inappropriate use of computers including
the internet, email, passwords, computer packages etc will be regarded as gross
misconduct and will be treated as such under the Practice Disciplinary
Procedure.
PRACTICE POLICIES/PROTOCOLS
All employees
of Christiana Hartley Medical Practice have been issued with an Employee
Handbook which should be referred to at all times and read in conjunction with
Practice Policies/Protocols that are on your desktop in the Staff Guidance
Folder.